Backup and restore

Where in the admin: System › Admin › Backup (/backup) appears only when the DDoS & BGP module is enabled; for a standard installation use the command line below.

What is backed up

sudo nexcmp backup creates one compressed archive containing:

Part	Content
data/**/*.db	Every SQLite database in /var/lib/nexcmp, copied with SQLite's online backup API — consistent even while the panel is running
files.tar	All other files in /var/lib/nexcmp (settings files, branding uploads, secrets/), except databases and the updates/ folder
etc/	A copy of /etc/nexcmp (installer settings, instance ID, port and bind)

The archive contains your master keys

secrets/ holds the key that encrypts API keys, payment credentials and SMTP passwords stored in the database. The archive is created with permissions 0600. Store it encrypted and off the server. Without these keys a restored database cannot decrypt its secrets.

Take a backup

sudo nexcmp backup                 # writes to /var/backups/nexcmp
sudo nexcmp backup /mnt/nas/nexcmp # or to another directory

The command prints the archive path, for example /var/backups/nexcmp/nexcmp-backup-20261030-120000.tar.zst.

Schedule it

echo '17 3 * * * root /usr/local/bin/nexcmp backup /var/backups/nexcmp && find /var/backups/nexcmp -name "nexcmp-backup-*" -mtime +14 -delete' | sudo tee /etc/cron.d/nexcmp-backup

Copy the folder off the machine (object storage, NAS, another server).

Restore

Restore onto a server where NexCMP of the same version (or newer) is installed.

1. Install NexCMP with the installer using the same license and domain, but do not run the setup wizard.
2. Stop the services:

   sudo systemctl stop nexcmp-vmd nexcmp

3. Unpack the archive into a temporary directory:

   sudo mkdir /root/restore && sudo tar --zstd -xf nexcmp-backup-20261030-120000.tar.zst -C /root/restore

4. Put the files back:

   sudo tar -xf /root/restore/files.tar -C /var/lib/nexcmp
   sudo cp -a /root/restore/data/. /var/lib/nexcmp/
   sudo cp -a /root/restore/etc/. /etc/nexcmp/
   sudo chown -R nexcmp:nexcmp /var/lib/nexcmp

5. Start the services and check:

   sudo systemctl start nexcmp nexcmp-vmd
   sudo nexcmp status

6. Sign in to https://<domain>/admin with the administrator of the backed-up system.

Rehearse it

Do step 1–6 on a spare server once, before you need it. A backup you have never restored is only a hope.

Not included

• nginx configuration and certificates (regenerated by the installer; Let's Encrypt certificates are re-issued).
• Your CloudStack / Proxmox VE servers and the virtual machines on them — back those up with their own tools.