Docker How To Backup Volume

Docker volumes are all stored within a directory on the host. Each volume is stored within it’s own subdirectory. You can backup that directory or any specific subdirectory that you choose.

Volumes are kept here by default:

/var/lib/docker/volumes

Backup all volumes:

tar cvfz backup.tar.gz -C /var/lib/docker/volumes .

Restore all volumes:

tar xvfz backup.tar.gz -C /var/lib/docker/volumes

Backup a specific volume:

tar cvfz backup.tar.gz -C /var/lib/docker/volumes/my_volume1 .

Restore a specific volume:

tar xvfz backup.tar.gz -C /var/lib/docker/volumes/my_volume1

Alternative - backup using a temporary container

You can also backup a volume using a temporary container, like this:

docker run --rm -v my_volume1:/data -v /backup:/backup ubuntu tar czvf /backup/backup.tar.gz -C /data .

restore with a temp container like this:

docker run --rm -v my_volume2:/data -v /backup:/backup ubuntu tar xzvf /backup/backup.tar.gz -C /data