Backing up and Restoring GeoNode

In order to completely backup a GeoNode installation requires that each separate component of GeoNode be tackled separately. There are separate backup files for Geonode/Django and GeoServer.

Creating a backup

1. Make a backup of the GeoNode database (PostgreSQL needs to be running):

   sudo -u postgres -i pg_dump -c -Fc geonode > geonodedb.backup
   

2. Stop all services:

   sudo service apache2 stop
   sudo /etc/init.d/tomcat7 stop
   

3. Backup Geonode config & GeoServer data directory:

   tar -cvzf geonodeConfigBackup.tgz /etc/geonode
   tar -cvzf geonodeDataBackup.tgz  /var/lib/geoserver/geonode-data/
   

4. In addition, any templates, design changes, and/or CSS files will also need to be captured.

5. Restart all services:

   sudo service apache2 start
   sudo /etc/init.d/tomcat7 start
   

Restoring a backup

1. First stop all services:

   sudo service apache2 stop
   sudo /etc/init.d/tomcat7 stop
   

2. Restore Geonode config & GeoServer data directory:

   sudo tar -C / -xvzf geonodeConfigBackup.tgz
   sudo tar -C / -xvzf geonodeDataBackup.tgz
   

3. In addition, any templates, design changes, and/or CSS files will need to be restored.

4. Make a backup of the GeoNode database (PostgreSQL needs to be running):

   sudo service postgresql start
   sudo -u postgres -i "psql -c 'drop database geonode;'"
   sudo -u postgres -i "psql -c 'create database geonode;'"
   sudo -u postgres -s "pg_restore -Fc -d geonode /path/to/geonodedb.backup"
   

5. Start all services:

   sudo service apache2 start
   sudo /etc/init.d/tomcat7 start
   

Notes

This approach works between machines with the same version of Linux and Geonode, and may not work between different versions of Linux, PostgreSQL, and PostGIS.