🗄️ Automated DB Backups

Maintainer: Khelif Hadil
Project URL: https://roadmap.sh/projects/automated-backups

A scheduled GitHub Actions workflow that automatically backs up a MongoDB database every 12 hours and uploads the compressed backup to Backblaze B2 (S3-compatible storage). Includes a restore script to recover the database from any backup.

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📌 Project Goal

Database backups are critical to any production system. This project demonstrates how to automate the entire backup lifecycle — dump, compress, upload, and prune — without managing any additional infrastructure.

Built by Khelif Hadil as part of the roadmap.sh DevOps projects.

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🏗️ Architecture

GitHub Actions (every 12 hours)
        │
        ▼
  mongodump → mydb_20260326_120000.tar.gz
        │
        ▼
  aws s3 cp → Backblaze B2 bucket
        │
        ▼
  Prune old backups (keep latest 10)

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🧰 Stack

Component	Tool
Database	MongoDB Atlas (free M0 tier)
Scheduler	GitHub Actions (cron)
Backup tool	mongodump (MongoDB Database Tools)
Storage	Backblaze B2 (S3-compatible, free tier)
Upload tool	AWS CLI (pointed at B2 endpoint)

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📁 Project Structure

.
├── .github/
│   └── workflows/
│       └── db-backup.yml    # Runs every 12h, dumps & uploads backup
├── scripts/
│   ├── backup.sh           # Manual backup script (alternative to Actions)
│   └── restore.sh          # Downloads latest backup from B2 & restores DB
├── .env.example            # Environment variable template
└── README.md

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⚙️ Setup

1. MongoDB Atlas

• Create a free M0 cluster at mongodb.com/atlas.
• Create a database user with read/write access.
• Under Network Access, allow connections from 0.0.0.0/0.
• Copy your connection string: mongodb+srv://<user>:<password>@cluster0.xxxxx.mongodb.net

2. Backblaze B2 Storage

• Create a free account at backblaze.com.
• Create a bucket (e.g., mongo-backups).
• Generate an App Key with Read & Write access.
• Note your bucket endpoint (e.g., https://s3.us-east-005.backblazeb2.com).

3. GitHub Secrets

Navigate to Settings > Secrets and variables > Actions and add:

Secret	Description
MONGO_URI	Full MongoDB Atlas connection string
DB_NAME	Name of the database to back up
R2_ACCESS_KEY_ID	Backblaze B2 App Key ID
R2_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY	Backblaze B2 App Key
R2_ENDPOINT	Your B2 S3-compatible endpoint
R2_BUCKET	Your B2 bucket name

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🕐 Schedule

The workflow runs automatically on this cron schedule:

on:
  schedule:
    - cron: '0 0,12 * * *'  # Every day at 00:00 and 12:00 UTC

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🔁 Restore (Recovery)

To restore the database from the latest backup:

chmod +x scripts/restore.sh
./scripts/restore.sh

The script performs the following:

1. Lists all backups in B2 and selects the latest one.
2. Downloads and extracts the tarball.
3. Prompts for confirmation before overwriting the database.
4. Executes mongorestore --drop for a clean restoration.

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🧹 Backup Retention

The workflow automatically keeps only the 10 most recent backups. It deletes older files from the B2 bucket to ensure you stay within the free storage limits.

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👤 Author

Khelif Hadil DevOps enthusiast and backend & database developer.

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📄 License

MIT