The management scripts include a mechanism to create backups of the instances, i.e. instance configurations, logs and save folders. These backups are stored in the folder defined in ''/etc/7dtd.conf'' in the variable ''SDTD_BACKUP_ROOT''. The backups will automatically be put in a new folder with the name being the current date and time. As the backups use [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_link hard links] there will be no duplicated data, i.e. two consecutive backups will only take up additional disk space for the files that actually differ between the two. Still you can view any backup as being a whole backup.

To create a new backup just run
{{{
7dtd.sh backup
}}}

See [[Installation#OptionalEnablecronjobforbackups|Installation - Enable cron jobs]] for details on how to enable the automatic backup system.


=== Options for backups ===

Since version 14 there are options in the global config that define a few ways to keep the size of the backups limited.

 SDTD_BACKUP_MIN_BACKUPS_KEEP::
   Number of backups to keep at a minimum, regardless of what the other options specify (e.g. always keep the 5 newest backups, even if their size exceeds the limit).
 SDTD_BACKUP_SAVEWORLD::
   Either "true" or "false" (without quotes). If set to true each instance running when doing a backup is sent the "saveworld" command first.
 SDTD_BACKUP_MAX_BACKUPS::
   Number of backups to keep at most.
 SDTD_BACKUP_MAX_STORAGE::
   Maximum disk space the backups may take up in total (given in MiB).
 SDTD_BACKUP_MAX_AGE::
   Maximum age backups may have before purged (given in hours).
 SDTD_BACKUP_COMPRESS::
   Should backups be compressed? Valid values:
     * none: Keep all backups as plain folders
     * old: Compress all backups but the latest
     * all: Compress all backups

'''Note:''' Setting compress to ''all'' obviously negates the positive effect of hard links between backups.