# Backups

> How a backup is taken, where it can be put off the machine, and what a restore really overwrites.

Source: https://stygion.eu/docs/panel/zalohy
Updated: 2026-08-30

![The Backups tab](https://stygion.eu/shots/panel/backups.webp)

A backup is an archive of the server's data directory at one moment.
Nothing more and nothing less: config, world, mods, logs. Not the image,
not the container, not the database — those have their own.

## Taking one

The **Backups** tab, an optional name (without one it is named by time),
and a button. The archive is made in place and appears in the list with
its size and time.

**Back up a running server only when you know why.** Minecraft holds
parts of the world in memory and writes them out when it feels like it.
An archive taken in the middle of that is consistent as a file, not as a
world. A graceful stop waits for the save — and `save-off` / `save-all`
from the [console](/docs/panel/konzole) is the other way, when you would
rather not stop the server at all.

## Off the machine

A backup beside the server protects against a deleted folder, not
against a dead disk. So an **off-box target** can be configured —
external storage the archive is uploaded to. Targets are managed by the
panel's administrator under **Admin → Backup targets**; a backup then
just needs **Upload to off-box target**.

## Restoring

A restore **overwrites the data directory** with the archive's contents.
It is not a merge and it does not undo.

So stop the server first. The panel will not stop a running server for
you, because deciding when a server may vanish out from under its
players is not its call.

## Downloading and deleting

A backup can be downloaded as a file — it is an ordinary archive,
nothing of ours — and deleted. Deleting is immediate and does not come
back.

## What a backup does not contain

- **Databases.** [Managed databases](/docs/panel/databaze) live on a
  database host, not in the data directory.
- **The server's settings in the panel.** Name, ports, variables and the
  startup command live in the panel's own database. An archive restored
  into a freshly created server brings the files, not the configuration
  around them.

Next: [Schedules](/docs/panel/plany).