43
How do you manage you DB in a docker environment?
(sh.itjust.works)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 14 Jun 2026
43 points (95.7% liked)
Selfhosted
62183 readers
539 users here now
A place to share alternatives to popular online services that can be self-hosted without giving up privacy or locking you into a service you don't control.
Rules:
-
Be civil.
-
No spam.
-
Posts are to be related to self-hosting.
-
Don't duplicate the full text of your blog or readme if you're providing a link.
-
Submission headline should match the article title.
-
No trolling.
-
Promotion posts require active participation, with an account that is at least 30 days old. F/LOSS without a paywall has exceptions, with requirements. See the rules link for details. Tags [CBH] or [AIP] are required, see the links in Rule 8 for details.
-
AI-related discussions and AI-involved promotional posts have additional requirements for tagging, as noted in Rule 7 and the AI & Promotional Post Expanded Rules post, and find example disclosures here.
Resources:
- selfh.st Newsletter and index of selfhosted software and apps
- awesome-selfhosted software
- awesome-sysadmin resources
- Self-Hosted Podcast from Jupiter Broadcasting
Any issues on the community? Report it using the report flag.
Questions? DM the mods!
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
Individually. If the app requires a DB, I put it in the compose file. This simplifies both backups and migrations. My tooling for backups has a pre and post script I can customize on a per app basis so I just have the pre do whatever *dump for that DB and the post clean it up (backup takes a tar of the folder).
My backup tooling just shuts down the container and associated db, then rysncs it all somwhere safe and restarts the container. Am I missing somethoing critical by not doing a db dump in the middle of that?
Most of the time that's perfectly fine, but if the database were in the middle of an operation you risk corruption.
The last thing I want is database corruption. That is why I "docker compose down" before I make a backup then "docker compose up" when the backup is complete. Is that not good enough? Do I have to do something else?
Yes that's good enough! Sorry I missed your statement about shutting down first. To clarify I leave mine running since a dump can recover if it gets corrupt.
Basically my backup contains the database and the SQL dump (or equivalent) - that way I don't need to shutdown the service.