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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.

Automatic Backups​

Gatwy now supports scheduled automatic backups from the admin UI.

  1. Go to Settings → Backup & Restore
  2. Open the Auto Backup section
  3. Enable automatic backups
  4. Configure the backup schedule and whether to include recordings
  5. Set and confirm the backup password used for generated backups
  6. Save changes

Automatic backups produce the same encrypted .geb format as manual backups, so restore works the same way.

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.