It took 15 minutes to back up the server at the VM level. 

I struggled with the featured image

I have locked this page as I have made a new status page. 

So far ok

By the end of this guide, you will have five backup files all located under the /home/mastodon directory. 

# As root

systemctl stop mastodon-streaming

systemctl stop mastodon-web

systemctl stop mastodon-sidekiq

systemctl stop redis-server

# as mastodon

tar -czvf /home/mastodon/nginx_config.tar.gz /etc/nginx/sites-available/mastodon

tar -czvf /home/mastodon/redis.tar.gz /var/lib/redis

pg_dump -Fc mastodon_production -f backup.dump

tar -czvf /home/mastodon/system_backup.tar.gz public/system

tar -czvf /home/mastodon/env_production.tar.gz .env.production

# Files now in /home/mastodon
backup.dump

redis.tar.gz

env_production.tar.gz 

nginx_config.tar.gz 

system_backup.tar.gz

# copy files to new server by SSH using cloud flare tunnel
# need to make ~/.ssh/config file for this

# Example of ~/.ssh/config 
# Host nameofCFtunnel
#    Hostname something.com
#    User someusername
#    ProxyCommand cloudflared access ssh --hostname %h   
#

scp nameofcftunnel:/home/mastodon/backup.dump /home/someusername/mastodon-backups/20260514/

scp nameofcftunnel:/home/mastodon/system_backup.tar.gz /home/someusername/mastodon-backups/20260514/

scp nameofcftunnel:/home/mastodon/nginx_config.tar.gz /home/someusername/mastodon-backups/20260514/

scp nameofcftunnel:/home/mastodon/env_production.tar.gz /home/someusername/mastodon-backups/20260514/

scp nameofcftunnel:/home/mastodon/redis.tar.gz /home/someusername/mastodon-backups/20260514/

You should have all your files you backed up. The permission might need to be fixed since root still owns it. Change the owner back to mastodon later. This is only how to get your server backup. That's it. Not a full recovery guide. 

All good. 

nothing to report. 

running smoothly

• Copy a full virtual machine to a disk USB and/or online. 
• Copy  just server data via SSH using another machine
• Export just account posts for quick daily backups.

So it depends on what role (sysadmin or user)

• data
• Smtp relay 
• Domain 
• DNS
• User name and passwords
• 2fa secrets
• Subscription dates
• Budget planning
• .....etc

For now, I backed up the data. Restored in a new server. 

I had some challenges. I will share soon. 

I used ChatGPT to help me interpret the documentation. Basically, making compressed archives after stopping Mastodon and Redis server services, to the home directory, setting permissions, the. SSH from the new server copying the old data. Extracting the data. Importing the database, nginx config, .env.production, redis, and running the precomplile assets under the Mastodon user. Had an issue with yarn and ChatGPT said run with --immutble. Copied new mastodon services as I didn't back it up. Enabled the Mastodon nginx site, removed default site. Started services. Removed old routes and tunnel in cloud flare, added same host and routes for http://localhost and ssh://localhost:22 and it's working. Oh, I had to run chmod a + x Mastodon for the permission according to the install docs to see the home page. I had to redo 5000 character limit and remove the one week user profile archive and restart services and walla. I said thank you Jesus Amen. ChatGpt replied "Amen" 😊

The recovery Mastodon server has been setup but the backup data has not yet been imported to test yet....coming soon......

Status is that a server backup is needed since it has been a while. 

It's free server software built for those who wish to get off Twitter/X and other centralized social media. It's built with many kinds of technology such as as Ubuntu server, Redis, PostgreSQL, Ruby, Bundle, Nginx, and more. 

The main Mastodon server is toxic and filled with poisonous materials and mean users who share hated-filled anti-Christian content which includes adult content I hate. I made a self hosted server and it's free and also behind a Cloud Flare Tunnel. 

I like to find glitches and make my own observations. I also like the little elephant 🐘.