How to back up a Laravel application, step by step

A complete Laravel application backup means three things: the project files (including .env), the storage folder with uploaded files, and the database. Here is how to save them all.

1. Manual backup

Archive the code and uploads (excluding vendor and node_modules, which reinstall):

cd /var/www/your-app
tar --exclude=vendor --exclude=node_modules -czf /mnt/backup/app-$(date +%F).tar.gz .

Save the database (MySQL in this example):

mysqldump -u root -p laravel | gzip > /mnt/backup/db-$(date +%F).sql.gz

2. With the spatie/laravel-backup package

The simplest route is the official backup package, which bundles the code and database into a single archive:

composer require spatie/laravel-backup
php artisan backup:run

You configure the destination in config/backup.php, including a disk pointing to your Backup Box.

3. Restore

Unpack the code, restore the database from the dump, run composer install and php artisan migrate if needed.

Keep backups on a Backup Box

Mount a Backup Box as an extra disk and write the archives straight to /mnt/backup, off-server. The address, username and password are on the Backup Box page in your panel.

apt-get install -y cifs-utils
mkdir -p /mnt/backup
mount -t cifs //BACKUP_BOX_ADDRESS/backup /mnt/backup -o username=USER,password=PASSWORD,vers=3.0

Schedule a daily cron that runs the backup and writes to the Backup Box, so your app is always recoverable.