Backup and Restore

MT Showcase includes mt-showcase-ctl utility tool for creating and restoring backups of MT Showcase data.

Find this tool in:

  • Ubuntu: /opt/mt-showcase/bin/mt-showcase-ctl

  • Windows: C:\Program Files\MT Showcase\bin\mt-showcase-ctl.exe

Create a Backup

Manual Backup

You can use mt-showcase-ctl tool to create a backup of current MT Showcase data by giving it the command line argument --backup. On Ubuntu this command should be run as mt-showcase-server user when using the default backup location. For example:

Ubuntu:

sudo -u mt-showcase-server /opt/mt-showcase/bin/mt-showcase-ctl --backup

Windows:

"C:\Program Files\MT Showcase\bin\mt-showcase-ctl" --backup

This will create a backup of MT Showcase database, reporting database and media library. It is saved to a new subfolder in the MT Showcase backups folder. The subfolder is named after the current date and MT Showcase version. Find the backups folder in:

  • Ubuntu: /var/lib/mt-showcase-server/backups

  • Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\MultiTaction\showcase\backups

Note

You can continue using MT Showcase client during a backup, but cannot use the Editor.

Change Default Backup Location

You can change the default backup folder in the server configuration, follow these steps:

  1. Edit the production_users.yaml file. For the file location, see the Where Are My Files? section.

  2. Using your preferred editor, set backup_root to the path you want. In the example below, the path is set to %APPDATA%\showcase-backups.

    backup_root: "%APPDATA%\\showcase-backups"

    You must include a space between backup_root: and the path! This is a syntax requirement of production.yaml.

Note

If you set the path to an empty value, automatic backups during an upgrade are disabled.

Create Backup to a Custom Location

You can give mt-showcase-ctl the --backup-path argument to save backup to a custom location. In this case the backup is created directly to the given path instead of creating a subfolder. If the folder contains any existing data with conflicting names, the backup process will fail. You can allow mt-showcase-ctl to delete existing data in the folder by giving it the --delete argument. For example:

"C:\Program Files\MT Showcase\bin\mt-showcase-ctl.exe" --backup --backup-path my-showcase-backup --delete

Exclude Data in a Backup

Normally a MT Showcase backup includes the main MT Showcase database, the reporting database (used for data gathering, see the Set Up Data Gathering section) and the assets in the media library. But you can choose to exclude any of the three components with the --backup-skip option. For example, to create a backup with just the main and reporting database but without assets, you can run:

"C:\Program Files\MT Showcase\bin\mt-showcase-ctl.exe" --backup --backup-skip assets

The available skip options are:

  • db: Exclude the main MT Showcase database

  • reporting: Exclude the reporting database used for data gathering

  • assets: Exclude the assets in the media library

You can exclude more than one component by giving a comma separated list, for example:

--backup-skip assets,reporting

Restore a Backup

Use mt-showcase-ctl --restore to restore MT Showcase data from a previously stored backup. Give the path to the backup file with the --backup-path argument. This command must be run as mt-showcase-server on Ubuntu. For example:

Ubuntu:

sudo -u mt-showcase-server /opt/mt-showcase/bin/mt-showcase-ctl --restore --backup-path my-showcase-backup

Windows:

"C:\Program Files\MT Showcase\bin\mt-showcase-ctl" --restore --backup-path my-showcase-backup

Note

The backup must be from the same or earlier version of Showcase, and the database type (PSQL or SQLite) must match the current MT Showcase.

Note

You must shut down MT Showcase server and client before restoring a backup.

Exclude Data in Restore

Normally a MT Showcase backup includes the main MT Showcase database, the reporting database (used for data gathering, see the Set Up Data Gathering section) and the assets in the media library. You can choose to exclude any of the three components when restoring data from the backup with the --restore-skip option. For example, to only restore main and reporting database from a backup, you can run:

"C:\Program Files\MT Showcase\bin\mt-showcase-ctl.exe" --restore --backup-path my-showcase-backup --restore-skip assets

The available skip options are:

  • db: Exclude the main MT Showcase database

  • reporting: Exclude the reporting database used for data gathering

  • assets: Exclude the assets in the media library

You can exclude more than one component by giving a comma separated list, for example:

--restore-skip assets,reporting