The server backs itself up: every collection byte for byte, the media linked

A backup is a directory <stamp>-<kind> under Backups:Root (/var/lib/privapub/backups, 2770, files 0640), written as
.partial and renamed once whole: a manifest (host, build, newest migration, each collection's count, size, sha256 and
indexes, what was left out and why, the media list), each collection as gzipped canonical Extended JSON read raw, and
hard links to the files of untrashed media rows (copies where a link can't be made). On a replica set every collection
is read in one snapshot session. Never in a backup: the statistics salt, jobs, recovery codes, sessions, the
maintenance lock and the configuration's copy with its SMTP password.

One backup or restore at a time (MaintenanceLock, a heartbeat document), and the janitor purges nothing meanwhile.
BackupScheduler backs up nightly at 03:30 UTC (or at once after missing a night); rotation keeps 7 daily, 4 weekly,
3 pre-deploy and 3 pre-restore backups. CLI: admin backup [--kind] [--db-only], admin backups, admin backup verify;
these run before migrations, so the deploy's own pre-deploy backup, which replaces mongodump, is of the database as the
live build left it. EntityMaps.Warm runs once under a lock, since test hosts now boot side by side.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01LsXgEaXee4GCU1hwYgPJXw

.gitea/workflows/deploy.yml

@@ -12,8 +12,7 @@ env:
   BACKUPS: /var/backups/privapub.thepra.dev
   LOCAL_URL: http://127.0.0.1:6970
   PUBLIC_URL: https://privapub.thepra.dev
-  MONGO_URI: mongodb://127.0.0.1:27022/?directConnection=true
-  MONGO_DB: PrivaPub
+  SERVER_BACKUPS: /var/lib/privapub/backups
 
 jobs:
   site:
@@ -57,19 +56,24 @@ jobs:
           echo "SNAPSHOT=$BACKUPS/site-$STAMP" >> "$GITHUB_ENV"
           ls -1dt "$BACKUPS"/site-* 2>/dev/null | tail -n +4 | xargs -r rm -rf || true
 
-      # without the statistics salt, which must not outlive its day (owner rule: it is destroyed at each rollup, and a dump
-      # kept for days would let the day's actor hashes be reversed)
-      - name: Dump the database
+      # The server's own backup (PrivaPub admin backup, owner decision 2026-10-07) of the database as the live build left it:
+      # the new build's command runs before its migrations. The media are listed, not linked (the runner may not link
+      # www-data's files; the nightly backups hold them). Never the statistics salt, which must not outlive its day (owner
+      # rule), nor the configuration's copy with its secrets. No deploy while a restore waits for its boot.
+      - name: Back up the database
         run: |
-          DUMP="$BACKUPS/mongo-$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S).archive.gz"
-          mongodump --quiet --uri "$MONGO_URI" --db "$MONGO_DB" --excludeCollection=InteractionSalt --gzip --archive="$DUMP"
-          if mongorestore --gzip --archive="$DUMP" --dryRun -v 2>&1 | grep -q "InteractionSalt"; then
-            rm -f "$DUMP"
-            echo "::error::the dump holds the statistics salt"
+          [ ! -e "$SERVER_BACKUPS/restore.json" ] || { echo "::error::a restore is pending or running ($SERVER_BACKUPS/restore.json): deploy after it"; exit 1; }
+          out=$(cd "$GITHUB_WORKSPACE/publish" && ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT=Production ./PrivaPub admin backup --kind pre-deploy --db-only)
+          echo "$out"
+          id=$(echo "$out" | grep -oE '^[0-9]{8}-[0-9]{6}-pre-deploy' | tail -1)
+          [ -d "$SERVER_BACKUPS/$id" ] || { echo "::error::the backup was not made"; exit 1; }
+          (cd "$GITHUB_WORKSPACE/publish" && ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT=Production ./PrivaPub admin backup verify "$id")
+          if [ -e "$SERVER_BACKUPS/$id/db/InteractionSalt.jsonl.gz" ]; then
+            echo "::error::the backup holds the statistics salt"
             exit 1
           fi
-          echo "::notice::database dumped to $DUMP ($(du -h "$DUMP" | cut -f1))"
-          ls -1t "$BACKUPS"/mongo-*.archive.gz 2>/dev/null | tail -n +8 | xargs -r rm -f || true
+          echo "BACKUP_ID=$id" >> "$GITHUB_ENV"
+          echo "::notice::database backed up as $id"
 
       - name: Stop, sync, start
         run: |