Backups

Your server can back itself up on a schedule to your own object storage, sealed with a recovery key only you hold. A replacement server restored from a backup keeps the same identity, so every computer and satellite reconnects without pairing again.

Backups are on the Standard, Premium and Enterprise plans, and in the 30-day trial. The plan is needed only to set them up: a schedule already set up, Run now and every restore keep working.

Connect a bucket

On the server's dashboard, open Settings → Server → Scaling → Object storage and add a connection: AWS S3, Cloudflare R2, Google Cloud Storage, Azure Blob Storage, or other S3-compatible storage.
Set up helps you create the bucket with your provider. Only names go into the links it opens, never keys.
Paste the values back and choose Test connection. It checks reading, writing, listing and deleting, and explains problems in plain words. The page shows a least-privilege access policy for each provider.

The storage keys stay in the server's credential store.

Turn on backups

Open Settings → Server → Backups.
Choose a schedule: hourly, daily (at 03:00 by default) or weekly.
Save the recovery key. It's shown once, at setup.
Choose Run now to take the first backup.

spandock backup list on the server lists the backups in the bucket.

The recovery key

The recovery key is the only way to open a backup. It's kept in the server's credential store and by you: never in the bucket, never in a log, and never sent to spandock.com. A backup checked with the wrong key says so plainly.

Each backup is sealed with AES-256-GCM before it leaves the server, with a key derived from the recovery key, in chunks that can't be swapped, reordered or dropped without the restore noticing.

What a backup holds

Included: the server's identity, its settings, keys and telemetry.

Left out: captured prompt text, the license token, the recovery key itself, sign-in sessions and people's own MCP connections.

Which backups are kept

The newest backup, everything from the last day, the newest of each of the last 7 days and of each of the last 4 weeks. Incomplete backups are removed after a day.

A failed backup is tried again after 30 minutes. A failed, missed or taken-over backup shows a warning under the bell, and can send a notification.

Restore

On a new machine, choose Replacing a server? Restore it from a backup during setup, or run spandock backup restore.
The restored server keeps the same identity, so clients and satellites reconnect without new pairing codes. It starts unactivated: sign in once to activate it.
If the old server comes back, it stops writing backups and warns you.

Limits

Satellites don't back up yet. Back up the hub, or a server on its own.
A backup from a newer version is refused until you update SpanDock.

Telemetry storage keeps the data sets you choose in the same kind of bucket, for as long as you choose.
Settings → Server → Backup & restore exports and imports the server's settings as a file, without secrets.