Plan templates and hook scripts

5 min · Screen: /admin/hooks · Needs: Permissions.Hooks.Manage

Plan templates

1. Open a plan you like and choose Save as template

2. Open Backups › Plan templates and click Apply to servers

   Pick servers - or a tag - and the template makes one disabled plan per server, checked against each server’s environment rules.

3. Review and enable each new plan

   Database sources that do not exist on a server are left out and reported.

Hook scripts

A hook is a script that runs on the server - or in a container - at one of four moments: Before the backup, After the backup, Before a restore, After a restore. Typical uses: stop a service, flush a cache, tell another system the result.

1. Open Admin › Hook scripts and click New hook

2. Name it and choose the Plan, When and Where

3. Write the Script

   #!/bin/bash runs it with bash, anything else with sh. It runs as the backup user. Pass secrets as variables - never write them in the script.

4. Set the Time limit and If it fails (stop the run or carry on)

5. Save - then ask a colleague to approve it

Caution

A hook runs only after somebody other than its author has approved its exact script. A plan with a hook waiting for approval runs none of its hooks, and its backups stop before they start.

Tip

Prefer the built-in consistency options - pausing containers, stopping a compose project, a database’s native dump - before writing a hook.

Related

• Create a backup plan
• How a backup run works
• Manage users and roles