Backup & Restore

Gatwy includes a built-in encrypted backup system accessible from the admin UI — no manual database dumps or volume copying needed.

Full System Backup

A Gatwy backup (.geb file) contains:

• The entire database (users, connections, roles, settings)
• All session recordings
• The encryption key used to encrypt recordings

Everything you need to fully restore a Gatwy instance is in a single file.

Encryption

Backups are protected with:

• AES-256-CTR encryption
• PBKDF2 key derivation (200,000 iterations)
• HMAC-SHA256 integrity verification

The backup password is separate from your login password.

Creating a Backup

1. Go to Settings → Backup & Restore
2. Click Create Backup
3. Enter a backup password
4. Download the .geb file

Store the file and password securely — without the password, the backup cannot be decrypted.

Restoring from Backup

1. Go to Settings → Backup & Restore
2. Click Restore
3. Upload the .geb file
4. Enter the backup password
5. Confirm the restore (this step is explicit to prevent accidental overwrites)

Gatwy hot-swaps the database and recordings without a restart — you're back online immediately.

warning

Restoring overwrites all current data. Always create a fresh backup before restoring.

Key Rotation

If you switch from a file-based encryption key to an environment variable key:

1. Create a backup (Settings → Backup & Restore) — the backup includes the old key
2. Update your GATWY_ENCRYPTION_KEY environment variable and restart
3. Restore from the backup — Gatwy will re-encrypt data with the new key

Connection Import / Export

For transferring only the connection tree (not recordings or users), use Settings → Import/Export to export/import connections as JSON.