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What is a Stack Backup?
Automated scanning to automatically discover everything that should be backed up.
Stacks — Automated Backup Discovery
What is a Stack?
A Stack is a connected infrastructure environment that SimpleBackups scans automatically to discover everything that should be backed up. Instead of manually creating individual backups one by one, you connect your server or cluster once and SimpleBackups finds all your databases, files, volumes, and configurations for you.
Think of it as "connect once, back up everything."
Why use Stacks?
- No manual setup per resource — discovery happens automatically
- Nothing falls through the cracks — new databases or volumes added to your server are picked up on the next discovery run
- Consistent settings across resources — one schedule, one storage destination, applied to everything in the stack
- Centralized view — see all your backups for a given environment in one place
Supported Environments
| Provider | What gets discovered |
|---|---|
| VPS / Linux Server | MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis databases · Web project files · Docker containers & volumes · Git repositories · Home directories · Custom paths |
| Kubernetes | Databases running in pods · Persistent Volume Claims (PVCs) · ConfigMaps & Secrets · Namespace workload configs · Helm releases |
| Supabase | Supabase project databases and storage |
How It Works
- Connect — Add a Stack by selecting your environment type and linking a server (or providing credentials)
- Discover — SimpleBackups connects via SSH and scans your environment for backupable resources
- Review — You see a list of everything found: databases, volumes, configs, etc.
- Activate — Choose which resources to back up, confirm the schedule and storage destination, and SimpleBackups starts protecting them automatically
- Stay up to date — Discovery runs on a schedule so newly added resources are picked up automatically
Setting Up a Stack
Step 1 — Add your server
Before creating a Stack, make sure your server is already added to SimpleBackups under Servers. Stacks connect through the server's existing SSH credentials.
Step 2 — Create a Stack
Go to Stacks → Create Stack and:
- Give it a name (e.g. "Production Server", "K8s Cluster")
- Select the provider type (VPS, Kubernetes, Supabase)
- Select the linked server
- Choose your default storage destination
- Choose your default backup schedule
Step 3 — Configure discovery
Each provider lets you control what gets scanned:
- Toggle on/off resource types (databases, files, Docker containers, etc.)
- For Kubernetes: specify which namespaces to scan, or leave empty to scan all
- Add custom paths (VPS) or configure namespace filters (Kubernetes)
Step 4 — Run discovery
Click Discover Resources. SimpleBackups connects to your environment and returns a list of everything found. This typically takes 10–30 seconds.
Step 5 — Enable backups
Review the discovered resources. For each one you want to protect:
- Confirm or adjust the backup configuration (database name, path, credentials if needed)
- Then complete the backup creation in a click
From this point, backups run automatically on your chosen schedule, all grouped under your Stack.
Discovery Settings
VPS / Linux Server
| Setting | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Discover Databases | On | Detects MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis |
| Discover Web Projects | On | Scans /var/www, /srv, /opt |
| Discover Home Directories | Off | Scans /home/* |
| Discover Docker Containers | Off | Finds running containers and their volumes |
| Discover Git Repositories | Off | Finds Git repos in web directories |
| Custom Paths | — | Additional paths to scan |
Kubernetes
See the Kubernetes Backup via Stacks guide for full details.
Managing a Stack
Re-running discovery
Click Discover Resources at any time to refresh the resource list. New resources will appear; existing backups already enabled will not be affected.
Discovery schedule
You can enable automatic discovery on a schedule so that new resources added to your server are detected and surfaced to you without needing to trigger it manually.
Editing a Stack
You can update the default schedule, storage destination, and discovery settings at any time from Stack → Configuration.
Stack Status
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Active | Discovery has run successfully and backups are enabled |
| Discovering | Discovery is currently running |
| Error | Last discovery attempt failed — check the error message |
| Disabled | Discovery is turned off |
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I have multiple Stacks for the same server?
Yes. For example, you might have one Stack for production databases and another for file backups, with different schedules and storage destinations.
What happens to existing backups when I re-run discovery?
Already-enabled backups are not changed. New resources appear in the discovered list and you can choose to enable them.
Can I disable a specific resource without deleting it?
Yes. You can pause or disable individual backups from the Stack resource list without removing them from discovery.
Does discovery store my credentials?
Database credentials discovered through environment variables or Kubernetes secrets are stored encrypted and are never exposed in the UI.
What if a resource isn't discovered automatically?
You can always create backups manually from the Backups section, or even add a custom resource to a Stack.
Kubernetes Stack BackupBack up your Kubernetes clusters with automatic discovery of databases, PVCs, ConfigMaps, Secrets, and Helm releases.Supabase Stack BackupBack up your Supabase projects with automatic discovery of databases, Storage buckets, Edge Functions, and more.