Are mysql dumps required for Ghost backup?

[chenningg]

I’m on the latest version of Ghost (v3.14.0), and was wondering if mysql dumps are still needed for Ghost backups. Would an export of the content data in JSON (via admin interface) + copying the content folder (images, themes and settings) out be enough to restore Ghost in its entirety? Or would an sqldump still be necessary?

I’m using mysql with Ghost self hosted on a Digital Ocean droplet. Ghost is in a docker container with mysql in another container, behind a nginx proxy. Thank you!

[inoryum]

Hi @chenningg sql dump is not needed i guess . Data Json & content dir is enough.
I’ve tried recently & no sql dump is needed

[chenningg]

Did you manage to do a full backup and restore without anything missing? Thank you!

[dsecareanu]

I did a migrate from one server to another with this method and it worked.

Migrating Ghost blog/data to a new server (droplet)

Preparing to migrate some sites from DO to AWS and will report here if this flow is still current. One question I have is if the site title/description is migrated or not or if there are other components that need special care (i.e. members as this is a newer feature). The process went as follows: I’ve setup a new EC2 server and installed nginx (1.16, not the standard ubuntu one) and nodejs 10 I’ve installed ghost cli I’ve exported the json file with the content of the existing blog I’ve chan…

[inoryum]

Yes & it worked without anything missing

[chenningg]

Alright, thanks all for the replies. Good to know! I’ll be continuing my backups in this manner then. Anyone got a cron script to share to automate backing up the content folder and/or the content JSON?