Restore Procedure

Complete restore procedures for Chatty AI from backup.

Overview

This guide covers restoring Chatty AI from a backup created with the backup procedure.

What gets restored:

PostgreSQL database (users, conversations, settings)
Qdrant vector database (embeddings, RAG data)
File uploads (user documents)
Configuration files (.env, docker-compose.yaml, certificates)

Quick Restore Script

Download Restore Script

Save this script as restore-chatty.sh:

#!/bin/bash
#=================================================================
# Chatty AI Restore Script
# Restores Chatty AI from backup
#=================================================================

set -e  # Exit on error

# Configuration
BACKUP_PATH="${1}"
COMPOSE_DIR="${COMPOSE_DIR:-/root/chatty-app-deploy/deploy}"

# Colors for output
RED='\033[0;31m'
GREEN='\033[0;32m'
YELLOW='\033[1;33m'
NC='\033[0m' # No Color

# Check if backup path provided
if [ -z "${BACKUP_PATH}" ]; then
    echo -e "${RED}Error: Backup path not provided${NC}"
    echo "Usage: $0 /path/to/backup"
    echo "Example: $0 /root/chatty-backups/chatty-backup-20260409_140000"
    exit 1
fi

# Check if backup exists
if [ ! -d "${BACKUP_PATH}" ]; then
    echo -e "${RED}Error: Backup directory not found: ${BACKUP_PATH}${NC}"
    exit 1
fi

echo -e "${GREEN}==================================================================${NC}"
echo -e "${GREEN}Chatty AI Restore Script${NC}"
echo -e "${GREEN}==================================================================${NC}"
echo ""
echo "Backup source: ${BACKUP_PATH}"
echo "Restore target: ${COMPOSE_DIR}"
echo ""

# Confirmation
echo -e "${YELLOW}⚠️  WARNING: This will replace all current data!${NC}"
echo -e "${YELLOW}Current data will be permanently deleted.${NC}"
echo ""
read -p "Are you sure you want to continue? (yes/no): " CONFIRM

if [ "${CONFIRM}" != "yes" ]; then
    echo "Restore cancelled"
    exit 0
fi

echo ""
echo -e "${YELLOW}Starting restore process...${NC}"
echo ""

# Navigate to compose directory
cd "${COMPOSE_DIR}"

# Stop services
echo -e "${YELLOW}[1/6] Stopping Chatty AI services...${NC}"
docker compose down
echo -e "${GREEN}✓ Services stopped${NC}"

echo -e "${YELLOW}[2/6] Restoring PostgreSQL database...${NC}"
# Start only database
docker compose up -d db
sleep 5

# Drop and recreate database
docker compose exec -T db psql -U chattyAdmin -d postgres -c "DROP DATABASE IF EXISTS chattydb;"
docker compose exec -T db psql -U chattyAdmin -d postgres -c "CREATE DATABASE chattydb OWNER chattyAdmin;"

# Restore database
gunzip -c "${BACKUP_PATH}"/postgres-*.sql.gz | docker compose exec -T db psql -U chattyAdmin -d chattydb

echo -e "${GREEN}✓ PostgreSQL database restored${NC}"

echo -e "${YELLOW}[3/6] Restoring Qdrant vector database...${NC}"
# Remove old Qdrant data
docker volume rm chatty-app_qdrant 2>/dev/null || true

# Restore Qdrant data
docker run --rm \
  -v chatty-app_qdrant:/data \
  -v "${BACKUP_PATH}":/backup \
  ubuntu tar xzf /backup/qdrant-*.tar.gz -C /

echo -e "${GREEN}✓ Qdrant vector database restored${NC}"

echo -e "${YELLOW}[4/6] Restoring file uploads...${NC}"
# Restore uploads
docker run --rm \
  -v chatty-app_chattyai:/data \
  -v "${BACKUP_PATH}":/backup \
  ubuntu tar xzf /backup/uploads-*.tar.gz -C /

echo -e "${GREEN}✓ File uploads restored${NC}"

echo -e "${YELLOW}[5/6] Restoring configuration files...${NC}"
# Restore .env if exists
if [ -f "${BACKUP_PATH}/config/.env" ]; then
    cp "${BACKUP_PATH}/config/.env" .env
    echo "✓ .env restored"
fi

# Restore docker-compose if exists
if [ -f "${BACKUP_PATH}/config/docker-compose.yaml" ]; then
    cp "${BACKUP_PATH}/config/docker-compose.yaml" docker-compose.yaml
    echo "✓ docker-compose.yaml restored"
fi

# Restore certificates if exist
if [ -d "${BACKUP_PATH}/config/certs" ]; then
    cp -r "${BACKUP_PATH}/config/certs" ./
    echo "✓ SSL certificates restored"
fi

echo -e "${GREEN}✓ Configuration files restored${NC}"

echo -e "${YELLOW}[6/6] Starting Chatty AI services...${NC}"
docker compose up -d
echo -e "${GREEN}✓ Services started${NC}"

echo ""
echo -e "${GREEN}==================================================================${NC}"
echo -e "${GREEN}Restore Complete!${NC}"
echo -e "${GREEN}==================================================================${NC}"
echo ""
echo -e "${YELLOW}Next steps:${NC}"
echo "1. Wait 2-3 minutes for all services to start"
echo "2. Verify services are running: docker compose ps"
echo "3. Check logs: docker compose logs"
echo "4. Test login to Chatty AI"
echo "5. Verify data integrity"
echo ""

Make Script Executable

chmod +x restore-chatty.sh

Run Restore

# Restore from backup
./restore-chatty.sh /root/chatty-backups/chatty-backup-20260409_140000

# With custom compose directory
COMPOSE_DIR=/path/to/deploy ./restore-chatty.sh /root/chatty-backups/chatty-backup-20260409_140000

Manual Restore Steps

If you prefer manual restore:

1. Stop Services

cd /root/chatty-app-deploy/deploy
docker compose down

2. Restore PostgreSQL Database

# Start only database
docker compose up -d db
sleep 5

# Drop existing database
docker compose exec db psql -U chattyAdmin -d postgres -c "DROP DATABASE IF EXISTS chattydb;"

# Create new database
docker compose exec db psql -U chattyAdmin -d postgres -c "CREATE DATABASE chattydb OWNER chattyAdmin;"

# Restore from backup
gunzip -c /root/chatty-backups/chatty-backup-20260409_140000/postgres-*.sql.gz | \
  docker compose exec -T db psql -U chattyAdmin -d chattydb

# Verify restore
docker compose exec db psql -U chattyAdmin -d chattydb -c "\dt"

3. Restore Qdrant Vector Database

# Stop database service
docker compose down

# Remove old Qdrant volume
docker volume rm chatty-app_qdrant

# Restore Qdrant data
docker run --rm \
  -v chatty-app_qdrant:/data \
  -v /root/chatty-backups/chatty-backup-20260409_140000:/backup \
  ubuntu tar xzf /backup/qdrant-*.tar.gz -C /

# Verify
docker volume inspect chatty-app_qdrant

4. Restore File Uploads

# Restore uploads
docker run --rm \
  -v chatty-app_chattyai:/data \
  -v /root/chatty-backups/chatty-backup-20260409_140000:/backup \
  ubuntu tar xzf /backup/uploads-*.tar.gz -C /

# Verify
docker run --rm -v chatty-app_chattyai:/data ubuntu ls -la /data/uploads

5. Restore Configuration

# Restore .env
cp /root/chatty-backups/chatty-backup-20260409_140000/config/.env .env

# Restore docker-compose
cp /root/chatty-backups/chatty-backup-20260409_140000/config/docker-compose.yaml docker-compose.yaml

# Restore certificates
cp -r /root/chatty-backups/chatty-backup-20260409_140000/config/certs ./

# Verify
ls -la .env docker-compose.yaml certs/

6. Start Services

# Start all services
docker compose up -d

# Check status
docker compose ps

# View logs
docker compose logs -f

Disaster Recovery

Complete System Rebuild

If restoring to a new server:

#!/bin/bash
# disaster-recovery.sh

# 1. Install Docker
curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sh

# 2. Clone deployment repository
git clone https://<DEPLOY_TOKEN>@github.com/chattyai-org/chatty-app-deploy.git
cd chatty-app-deploy/deploy

# 3. Restore configuration
cp /path/to/backup/config/.env .env
cp /path/to/backup/config/docker-compose.yaml docker-compose.yaml
cp -r /path/to/backup/config/certs ./

# 4. Create volumes
docker volume create chatty-app_db_data
docker volume create chatty-app_qdrant
docker volume create chatty-app_chattyai

# 5. Run restore script
/path/to/restore-chatty.sh /path/to/backup

# 6. Verify
docker compose ps
docker compose logs

Selective Restore

Restore Only Database

#!/bin/bash
# restore-database-only.sh

BACKUP_PATH="/root/chatty-backups/chatty-backup-20260409_140000"

cd /root/chatty-app-deploy/deploy

# Stop chattyai service only
docker compose stop chattyai

# Restore database
gunzip -c "${BACKUP_PATH}"/postgres-*.sql.gz | \
  docker compose exec -T db psql -U chattyAdmin -d chattydb

# Restart chattyai
docker compose start chattyai

echo "Database restored"

Restore Only Qdrant

#!/bin/bash
# restore-qdrant-only.sh

BACKUP_PATH="/root/chatty-backups/chatty-backup-20260409_140000"

cd /root/chatty-app-deploy/deploy

# Stop services using Qdrant
docker compose stop chattyai chattydatabases-ai-service qdrant

# Remove old data
docker volume rm chatty-app_qdrant

# Restore
docker run --rm \
  -v chatty-app_qdrant:/data \
  -v "${BACKUP_PATH}":/backup \
  ubuntu tar xzf /backup/qdrant-*.tar.gz -C /

# Restart services
docker compose start qdrant chattydatabases-ai-service chattyai

echo "Qdrant restored"

Restore Only Configuration

#!/bin/bash
# restore-config-only.sh

BACKUP_PATH="/root/chatty-backups/chatty-backup-20260409_140000"

cd /root/chatty-app-deploy/deploy

# Backup current config
cp .env .env.backup
cp docker-compose.yaml docker-compose.yaml.backup

# Restore from backup
cp "${BACKUP_PATH}/config/.env" .env
cp "${BACKUP_PATH}/config/docker-compose.yaml" docker-compose.yaml
cp -r "${BACKUP_PATH}/config/certs" ./

# Restart services
docker compose down
docker compose up -d

echo "Configuration restored"

Verification After Restore

Verify Services

#!/bin/bash
# verify-restore.sh

echo "Checking services..."
docker compose ps

echo ""
echo "Checking database..."
docker compose exec db psql -U chattyAdmin -d chattydb -c "SELECT COUNT(*) FROM users;"

echo ""
echo "Checking Qdrant..."
curl -s http://localhost:6333/collections | jq

echo ""
echo "Checking Chatty AI..."
curl -s http://localhost:3000/health || curl -s https://$(grep CHATTYAI_DOMAIN .env | cut -d= -f2)/health

echo ""
echo "Verification complete"

Test Functionality

Login Test

# Access Chatty AI
https://chat.example.com

# Login with admin credentials
# Verify dashboard loads

Database Test

# Check user count
docker compose exec db psql -U chattyAdmin -d chattydb -c "SELECT COUNT(*) FROM users;"

# Check conversations
docker compose exec db psql -U chattyAdmin -d chattydb -c "SELECT COUNT(*) FROM chats;"

RAG Test

# Check Qdrant collections
curl http://localhost:6333/collections

# Verify embeddings exist

File Upload Test

# Check uploads directory
docker run --rm -v chatty-app_chattyai:/data ubuntu ls -lh /data/uploads

Troubleshooting

Restore Fails - Database Connection

# Check database is running
docker compose ps db

# Check logs
docker compose logs db

# Restart database
docker compose restart db
sleep 10

Restore Fails - Permission Denied

# Run as root
sudo ./restore-chatty.sh /path/to/backup

# Or fix permissions
sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /root/chatty-app-deploy

Services Won't Start After Restore

# Check logs
docker compose logs

# Check .env file
cat .env

# Verify volumes
docker volume ls | grep chatty-app

# Recreate containers
docker compose down
docker compose up -d --force-recreate

Data Missing After Restore

# Verify backup contents
ls -la /path/to/backup/

# Check backup manifest
cat /path/to/backup/MANIFEST.txt

# Verify volumes
docker volume inspect chatty-app_db_data
docker volume inspect chatty-app_qdrant
docker volume inspect chatty-app_chattyai

Restore Checklist

Backup Procedure - How to create backups
Database Variables - Database configuration
Service Management - Managing services from backup.

Overview​

Quick Restore Script​

Download Restore Script​

Make Script Executable​

Run Restore​

Manual Restore Steps​

1. Stop Services​

2. Restore PostgreSQL Database​

3. Restore Qdrant Vector Database​

4. Restore File Uploads​

5. Restore Configuration​

6. Start Services​

Disaster Recovery​

Complete System Rebuild​

Selective Restore​

Restore Only Database​

Restore Only Qdrant​

Restore Only Configuration​

Verification After Restore​

Verify Services​

Test Functionality​

Troubleshooting​

Restore Fails - Database Connection​

Restore Fails - Permission Denied​

Services Won't Start After Restore​

Data Missing After Restore​

Restore Checklist​

Related Documentation​