System Backup and Restore

Next Terminal includes built-in backup and restore. After signing in as an administrator, open System Settings → System Maintenance → Backup & Restore. No external backup script is required.

Backup Contents

System backup files use the .ntbak format and include:

• The PostgreSQL database
• CA certificates and private keys

Backups exclude session recordings and Windows mounted-drive files. To back up all deployment data, also back up data/recordings and data/drive separately.

Manual Backup

1. Open System Settings → System Maintenance → Backup & Restore.
2. Click Back Up Now.
3. Wait for the backup task to finish.
4. Download the generated .ntbak file from the backup list and store it safely outside the deployment server.

Local backup files are stored in data/backups by default. Keep a downloaded copy so that a server or disk failure does not destroy both the original data and its backups.

Scheduled Backups and Remote Storage

The Backup & Restore page lets you configure:

• Scheduled backups
• The daily backup time
• Automatic-backup retention
• Uploading successful backups to S3, SFTP, or WebDAV

Test the connection before enabling remote uploads, and make sure the remote destination has sufficient storage space.

Restore a Backup

You can restore a backup in either of these ways:

• Select an existing file in the backup list and click its restore button.
• Click Upload and Restore and select a local .ntbak file.

Restoring overwrites the current database

A restore overwrites the current PostgreSQL database. The system automatically creates a safety backup before restoring, but you should still download and retain a current backup first.

After the restore finishes, restart Next Terminal:

docker compose restart next-terminal

PostgreSQL Client Version

The system runs database backups and restores with pg_dump and pg_restore included in the Next Terminal image. The Next Terminal image must match the PostgreSQL server major version:

PostgreSQL server	Next Terminal image	Included client
PostgreSQL 16	dushixiang/next-terminal:latest	PostgreSQL 16
PostgreSQL 18	dushixiang/next-terminal:latest-pg18	PostgreSQL 18

To migrate from PostgreSQL 16 to PostgreSQL 18, see Migrate from PostgreSQL 16 to PostgreSQL 18.