django-caretaker

django-caretaker ('The Caretaker') is a Django app that backs up your database and media files to a versioned remote object store, such as an AWS S3 bucket. It comes with the Terraform files to provision the required cloud infrastructures (e.g. S3 bucket) and provides management commands to schedule regular backups.

Install

To install the module, use pip:

pip install django-caretaker

Add 'caretaker' to your installed apps in your Django settings file.

Add 'path('caretaker/', include('caretaker.urls')),' to your urls.py file to enable the /caretaker/list view.

django-caretaker requires Python 3.10+ as it makes use of newer language features.

Setup and Configuration

Configure a backend and access rights

django-caretaker has the ability to support multiple cloud-based object store backends. However, at the moment, the only backend provider that we have is for Amazon S3. This will expand as the project grows.

Amazon S3 / IAM

Ensure that you have a working AWS cli client and configure it if not.

Set the BACKUP_BUCKET variable in your settings.py file. This must be a globally unique name for the S3 bucket. You should also set the MEDIA_ROOT folder so that we know what to back up:

CARETAKER_BACKUP_BUCKET = 'caretakertestbackup'
CARETAKER_ADDITIONAL_BACKUP_PATHS = ['/home/user/path1', '/home/user/path2']
CARETAKER_BACKEND = 'Amazon S3'
CARETAKER_BACKENDS = ['caretaker.backend.backends.s3']
MEDIA_ROOT = '/var/www/media'

The CARETAKER_BACKENDS list allows you to specify the available backends. The CARETAKER_BACKEND variable selects the backend to use (there is only S3 at the moment).

Generate and run Terraform configuration in your home directory:

./manage.py get_terraform --output-directory=~/terraform_configuration
cd ~/terraform_configuration
terraform init
terraform apply
terraform output --json

Note down the AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID and AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY and put them in your settings.py file:

AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID = 'PUT_ACCESS_KEY_HERE'
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY = 'PUT_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY_HERE'

Install the Backup Script in Cron

To install a cron line that will run the backup daily at 15 minutes past midnight on the server, run:

./manage.py install_cron --action=test
./manage.py install_cron

Usage

Caretaker provides a number of management commands that can be accessed from manage.py:

Run Backup

This is the most important command. It backs up your database and your media files to the remote store.

usage: manage.py run_backup [-h] [--output-directory OUTPUT_DIRECTORY] [-a ADDITIONAL_FILES] [--version] [-v {0,1,2,3}] [--settings SETTINGS]
                        [--pythonpath PYTHONPATH] [--traceback] [--no-color] [--force-color] [--skip-checks]

Creates a backup set and pushes it to the remote store

Example usage:

manage.py run_backup --output-directory=~/backup -a /home/user/dir1 -a /home/user/dir2

Push Backup

This command pushes a backup to the server.

usage: manage.py push_backup [-h] [--backup-local-file BACKUP_LOCAL_FILE] [--remote-key REMOTE_KEY] [--version] [-v {0,1,2,3}]
                         [--settings SETTINGS] [--pythonpath PYTHONPATH] [--traceback] [--no-color] [--force-color] [--skip-checks]

Pushes the backup SQL to the remote store

Example usage:

manage.py push_backup --backup-local-file=/home/obc/backups/data.json --remote-key=data.json

Pull Backup

This command retrieves a backup file from the server. You must also specify the version you wish to retrieve.

usage: manage.py pull_backup [-h] [--backup-version BACKUP_VERSION] [--out-file OUT_FILE] [--remote-key REMOTE_KEY] [--version]
                         [-v {0,1,2,3}] [--settings SETTINGS] [--pythonpath PYTHONPATH] [--traceback] [--no-color] [--force-color]
                         [--skip-checks]

Pulls a specific backup SQL from the remote store

Example:

manage.py pull_backup --remote-key=data.json --backup-version=jB1dtbf1qraDQhBlKGGDXKAZugEnT2KB --out-file=/home/user/data.json

Restoring a Backup

Restoring a backup consists of the following steps. First, find the backups that you want:

manage.py list_backups --remote-key=data.json
manage.py list_backups --remote-key=backup.tar.gz

You can use grep to find a specific date.

Then pull the files down:

manage.py pull_backup --remote-key=data.json --backup-version=<INSERT_BACKUP_VERSION_ID> --out-file=/home/user/data.json
manage.py pull_backup --remote-key=backup.tar.gz --backup-version=<INSERT_BACKUP_VERSION_ID> --out-file=/home/user/backup.tar.gz

Unzip backup.zip and replace the media folders with the results.

Reload the database:

manage.py loaddata /home/user/data.json

Credits

AWS CLI for interactions with AWS.
Django for the ORM and caching system.
django-dbbackup for hints and tips.
Git from Linus Torvalds et al.
.gitignore from Github.
Rich for beautiful output.
Terraform by Hashicorp.

mauromsl/django-caretaker