Why zammad backup, save opt/zammad/var?

Ours · January 4, 2024, 3:07pm

Hi,

I use zammad on docker-compose.
I don’t understand why the backup script backs up the /opt/zammad/var folder where there is nothing in it apart from 2 files whose usefulness I don’t understand, namely README.md and zammad.ready.

and not the /opt/zammad/storage folder where there are my attachments linked to the database???

Do I have to rewrite the backup script if I switch the storage to “file system” mode?

is this folder/volume/var important? if so, why?

MrGeneration · January 4, 2024, 4:27pm

Why don’t you read the Readme you’ve found?
It actually does answer your question:

github.com

zammad/zammad/blob/develop/var/README.md

This folder stores persistent application data like unprocessable emails,
and must be shared in cluster setups to be available for all nodes.

Possible subfolders (depending on system configuration and usage):
- `var/spool/unprocessable_mail` - stores emails that could not properly be imported

Just for reference, Zammad 6.1 and earlier did also store here:
- `var/spool/oversized_mail` - emails that were rejected as too big

Ours · January 4, 2024, 4:32pm

I’ve read it, but I don’t understand why it’s really important (please give me an example). That’s why I’m asking my question here.

Now in any case it only answers part of the question…

How do I back up my attachments if I’m using file system storage? Do I modify the backup script and add the storage folder to the tar file?

MrGeneration · March 27, 2024, 2:53pm

Sorry I don’t understand why you don’t understand why you would want to backup potentially broken emails in case of e.g. storage failures as mentioned:

This is going to be obsolete with the upcoming 6.3 any way, but still, you’d want to backup files that potentially are important.

Well the docker container uses a custom backup script that does not exactly match the upstream backup script. This backup script (the custom one) does not expect you to have the storage in the container but in the database. That’s the default for Zammad.

If you still want to have them in the containers file system, then you want to backup /opt/zammad/storage/ besides the database.