Backup and Export

A reliable backup strategy is essential for any payment platform. This guide covers what to back up, how to automate backups, how to restore from a backup, and how to export data for external use.

What to back up

You need to protect four categories of data:

Category	Location	Contents
Database	MySQL	All `op_` tables - transactions, customers, ledger, settings, sessions
Storage files	`storage/`	Cache, compiled views, logs, uploaded files (logos, dispute evidence)
Environment config	`.env`	APP_KEY, ENCRYPTION_KEY, JWT_SECRET, database credentials, Redis config
Custom code	`modules/`, `config/`	Custom plugins, themes, and config overrides

The .env file contains your ENCRYPTION_KEY. Without it, you cannot decrypt customer PII or gateway credentials stored in the database. Always include .env in your backups.

Database backup

Use mysqldump with the --single-transaction flag to produce a consistent snapshot without locking tables during the dump.

mysqldump \
  --single-transaction \
  --routines \
  --triggers \
  --set-gtid-purged=OFF \
  -u ownpay_user -p \
  ownpay_db > /backups/ownpay-db-$(date +%Y-%m-%d_%H%M%S).sql

The --single-transaction flag uses InnoDB’s MVCC to create a consistent snapshot. This is safe for production databases because it does not block reads or writes.

File backup

Archive the application files, excluding dependencies that can be reinstalled and temporary files that are regenerated automatically.

tar -czf /backups/ownpay-files-$(date +%Y-%m-%d_%H%M%S).tar.gz \
  --exclude='vendor' \
  --exclude='node_modules' \
  --exclude='storage/cache/*' \
  --exclude='storage/sessions/*' \
  --exclude='storage/logs/*' \
  -C /var/www ownpay/

Then copy the .env file separately with restricted permissions:

cp /var/www/ownpay/.env /backups/ownpay-env-$(date +%Y-%m-%d_%H%M%S).txt
chmod 600 /backups/ownpay-env-*.txt

Automated backup script

Create a shell script that produces timestamped database and file backups, and rotates old backups to prevent disk exhaustion.

#!/bin/bash
# /opt/scripts/ownpay-backup.sh

BACKUP_DIR="/backups/ownpay"
RETENTION_DAYS=30
DB_NAME="ownpay_db"
DB_USER="ownpay_user"
APP_DIR="/var/www/ownpay"

mkdir -p "$BACKUP_DIR"

# Database backup
mysqldump --single-transaction -u "$DB_USER" -p"$DB_PASS" "$DB_NAME" \
  | gzip > "$BACKUP_DIR/db-$(date +%Y-%m-%d_%H%M%S).sql.gz"

# File backup (exclude vendor, cache, sessions)
tar -czf "$BACKUP_DIR/files-$(date +%Y-%m-%d_%H%M%S).tar.gz" \
  --exclude='vendor' --exclude='node_modules' \
  --exclude='storage/cache' --exclude='storage/sessions' \
  -C /var/www ownpay/

# Rotate old backups
find "$BACKUP_DIR" -name "*.sql.gz" -mtime +$RETENTION_DAYS -delete
find "$BACKUP_DIR" -name "*.tar.gz" -mtime +$RETENTION_DAYS -delete

echo "Backup completed: $(date)"

Make it executable and schedule it with cron:

chmod +x /opt/scripts/ownpay-backup.sh

# Run daily at 2:00 AM
crontab -e
0 2 * * * /opt/scripts/ownpay-backup.sh >> /var/log/ownpay-backup.log 2>&1

Restore procedure

Follow these steps to restore an OwnPay installation from backup.

Pre-update backups

OwnPay’s built-in UpdateService automatically creates a database backup and file snapshot before applying any update. These backups are stored in storage/backups/pre-update-{version}/.

Automatic pre-update backups are a safety net, not a replacement for your own backup schedule. If the update process itself fails catastrophically (disk full, permissions error), the automatic backup may not have completed. Always maintain independent backups.

Data export

For compliance, accounting, or migration purposes, you can export data without a full database backup.

Transactions - Filter by date range, status, or gateway on the Transactions page, then click Export CSV. This includes amount, fee, net amount, currency, status, and gateway reference.
Reports - The Reports page generates summary data that can be exported as CSV for import into accounting software.
Customer data - Export individual customer records or bulk-export all customers for a brand. This includes all PII in decrypted form for GDPR data portability requests.

Security and Compliance - Encrypting backups and handling PII
Migration Guide - Upgrading between versions safely
Performance and Scaling - Optimizing backup I/O on busy servers

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Backup and Export

What to back up

Database backup

File backup

Automated backup script

Restore procedure

Pre-update backups

Data export

​What to back up

​Database backup

​File backup

​Automated backup script

​Restore procedure

​Pre-update backups

​Data export

​Related Pages

What to back up

Database backup

File backup

Automated backup script

Restore procedure

Pre-update backups

Data export

Related Pages