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Backups and Storage

Manage local, remote and S3 backups, and standalone volumes, from the CLI.

Elestio provides three backup tiers and one storage extension type (volumes).​

Local Backups (Application-Level)​

Application-consistent backups are stored on the service VM itself. Created using pre/post-backup scripts specific to each template.

# List local backups
elestio backups local-list <vmID>

# Create a local backup now
elestio backups local-take <vmID>

# Restore from a local backup
elestio backups local-restore <vmID> /opt/app-backups/backup.zst

# Delete a local backup
elestio backups local-delete <vmID> /opt/app-backups/backup.zst

Remote Backups (Elestio Managed)​

Backups are stored in Elestio's managed storage infrastructure, separate from the VM.

# List remote backups
elestio backups remote-list <vmID>

# Take a remote backup now
elestio backups remote-take <vmID>

# Restore from a remote backup
elestio backups remote-restore <vmID> <snapshot-name>

# Enable automatic remote backups (daily)
elestio backups auto-enable <vmID>

# Disable automatic remote backups
elestio backups auto-disable <vmID>

S3 External Backups​

Store backups in your own S3-compatible bucket (AWS S3, MinIO, Backblaze B2, etc.).

# Test S3 connectivity before enabling
elestio s3-backup verify <vmID> \
--key ACCESS_KEY \
--secret SECRET_KEY \
--bucket my-backups \
--endpoint s3.amazonaws.com

# Enable S3 backups
elestio s3-backup enable <vmID> \
--key ACCESS_KEY \
--secret SECRET_KEY \
--bucket my-backups \
--endpoint s3.amazonaws.com

# Take an S3 backup now
elestio s3-backup take <vmID>

# List S3 backups
elestio s3-backup list <vmID>

# Restore from S3
elestio s3-backup restore <vmID> <backup-key>

# Delete an S3 backup
elestio s3-backup delete <vmID> <backup-key>

# Disable S3 backups
elestio s3-backup disable <vmID>

Volumes (Block Storage)​

Persistent storage volumes that can be attached to services. Hetzner provides full volume operations; other providers may have limited or no support.

# List all volumes in a project
elestio volumes

# Create a standalone volume
elestio volumes create --name my-volume --size 20

# OVHcloud: choose the volume type (NVME = High-Speed Gen2, default; HDD = Classic)
elestio volumes create --name my-volume --size 20 --type HDD

# List volumes attached to a service
elestio volumes service-list <vmID>

# Create and attach a volume to a service
elestio volumes service-create <vmID> --name app-data --size 50

# Resize a volume
elestio volumes resize <vmID> <volumeID> --size 100

# Detach a volume from a service
elestio volumes detach <vmID> <volumeID>

# Delete a volume
elestio volumes delete <vmID> <volumeID>

# Protect a volume from accidental deletion
elestio volumes protect <vmID> <volumeID>

TierFrequencyRetentionUse for
LocalManualNoFast restore, same VM
Remote Borg (auto)DailyBased on the support planVM failure, corruption, restore
S3 externalDailyCustomizableCompliance, cross-region

Enable all three for production services:

# Enable auto remote backups
elestio backups auto-enable <vmID>

# Enable S3 backups
elestio s3-backup enable <vmID> --key X --secret Y --bucket Z --endpoint S