23 May 2020

How To Backup Docker Container Volumes Using Powershell Core

Backup each directory into a Tar file

Login to the docker vm and elevate to root
Launch Powershell Core
```
 pwsh
```
If you don’t have powershell core installed, see Installing Powershell Core on Linux
Open docker volumes directory
```
 cd /var/lib/docker/volumes/
```

Compress each directory into a file with a corresponding name

 # store list of directories in a variable
 $directories = Get-ChildItem -Directory

 # list commands to be run
 $directories | ForEach-Object { echo "tar -cvzf $($_.name).tgz $($_.name)" }

 # run commands listed above
 $directories | ForEach-Object { tar -cvzf "$($_.name).tgz" "$($_.name)" }

Now you are free to download or move the tar files to a backup location for safe keeping.

Restore each Tar file back to their original directory

Login to the docker vm and elevate to root
Launch Powershell Core
```
 pwsh
```
Open docker volumes directory
```
 cd /var/lib/docker/volumes/
```

Copy/Move your backups (.tgz) files into the directory you want to restore them to.

 cp \temp\*.tgz /var/lib/docker/volumes/
 #note: replace \temp with the directory your backups are located in

Uncompress each file into their original directory

 # store list of .tgz files in a variable
 $files = Get-ChildItem -File -Filter *.tgz

 # list commands to be run
 $files | ForEach-Object { echo "tar -zxvf $($_.name)" }

 # run commands listed above
 $files | ForEach-Object { tar -zxvf "$($_.name)" }

Remove backups (IF NO LONGER NEEDED)
```
 rm *.tgz
```