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Backups and database

Colliedesk keeps its data in PostgreSQL and in a directory of attachment files. This page covers backups, database requirements and the database users.

Data to back up

Colliedesk keeps data in two places. Back up both (the commands, and how to restore the whole install or one workspace, are in upgrade, roll back and restore):

  • PostgreSQL (the postgres-data volume).
  • Attachment files in ATTACHMENTS_DIR (the attachments-data volume, mounted at /data/attachments). Without a volume, files are lost when the container is recreated.

PostgreSQL row-level security keeps each workspace's rows apart. Because of it:

  1. Run pg_dump as a superuser: postgres for installs made with the installer, colliedesk for older installs and for the repository's compose.yaml.
  2. Before you restore into a new PostgreSQL server, create the role that Colliedesk uses for requests. Its name is colliedesk_app_ followed by the database name:
    CREATE ROLE colliedesk_app_colliedesk NOLOGIN;
GRANT colliedesk_app_colliedesk TO colliedesk;
    Replace the second colliedesk with your DATABASE_URL user if it is different.

A workspace admin can also download everything in one workspace from the web app; see export all your data.

Database requirements and hardening

An external database must be PostgreSQL 16 or newer.

The installer connects Colliedesk with two users:

  • colliedesk owns the data and runs migrations. It is not a superuser.
  • colliedesk_request serves requests and can only read the signed-in workspace.

Installs made before this layout keep one superuser connection and upgrade without changes. To add the request user to such an install:

  1. Add one line to .env, with a new random password:
    DATABASE_REQUEST_URL=postgres://colliedesk_request:<password>@postgres:5432/colliedesk?sslmode=disable
  2. Run docker compose up -d. The server creates the user on start.

The server opens at most 20 database connections per pool. To change that, add pool_max_conns=N to DATABASE_URL or DATABASE_REQUEST_URL, for example ...?sslmode=disable&pool_max_conns=40. Keep it well above 2, the number of workspace exports the server runs at once.

When you remove an install from a shared PostgreSQL server, also remove its two users. Dropping the database does not remove them. As a superuser, after dropping the database:

DROP ROLE colliedesk_app_colliedesk;
DROP ROLE colliedesk_request;

Details: workspace isolation.

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