Using Snapshots & Backups

Dash Enterprise has improved support for Snapshots, which are point-in-time backups initiated via the Server Manager and intended to be used as restore points when completing a fresh installation on a new server.

Snapshot duration takes approximately 10 minutes on a server using a solid-state drive and writing to its own local filesystem (not recommended for production systems). You may achieve further performance improvements if your Dash Enterprise instance is on AWS EC2 and you set up an AWS S3 storage bucket as the snapshot file destination.

Configuring snapshots

1. Browse to your Dash Enterprise Server Manager and click Settings

2. Under Daily Snapshots, check Enable Snapshots

3. Click Save

4. Click the gear icon in the top right, then Console Settings in the resulting drop-down menu

5. Under Snapshot & Restore, configure your backup strategy according to your business needs; we recommend the following:

   1. Snapshot File Destination: avoid using Local for production systems

   2. Snapshot Timeout (optional): set to 30 minutes

6. Click Save

Taking a snapshot

There are two options for taking snapshots:

• Automatically: in the Server Manager Console Settings, check Enable Automatic Scheduled Snapshots and select your preferred frequency

• Manually: on the Server Manager Dashboard, click Start Snapshot

While a snapshot is in progress, you may continue using Dash Enterprise as normal.

If a snapshot is interrupted or otherwise does not complete, you may retry manually with Start Snapshot. Automatic scheduled snapshots do not retry automatically upon failure and require a manual retry.

Restoring from snapshot

Dash Enterprise only supports restoring snapshots during installation on a new server. Restoring in place with an existing installation is not supported.

1. SSH to your target server and run the Plotly installation script:

curl -sSL https://get.plot.ly | sudo bash

1. Browse to the IP address generated by the script and click Continue to Setup

2. Accept the self-signed certificate and proceed to the next page

3. Enter the Hostname of your server and upload the key/certificate files you wish to use, or proceed with a self-signed certificate

4. At the Upload Your License page, click Restore from Snapshot

5. Enter the location of your snapshot file and click Browse Snapshots

6. When your snapshot list appears, click Restore beside the snapshot you want to restore and wait for the snapshot metadata to load

7. When prompted, unlock the admin console and proceed past the Preflight Checks

8. At Restore Cluster, click Restore, then monitor progress from the Server Manager Dashboard

9. When the app reports it is ready, SSH into your server and rebuild your Dash apps:

docker exec -it dash bash
for service in $(dokku --quiet redis:list); do dokku redis:start $service; done
for service in $(dokku --quiet postgres:list); do dokku postgres:start $service; done
dokku ps:rebuild --all

Your restored Dash Enterprise instance is now ready for use.