Pre-Upgrade Backup Checklist

System upgrades carry some risk; thorough backups are a prerequisite for a safe upgrade. The following checklist helps you prepare fully before upgrading.

Backup Priority

Priority	Content	Reason
Highest	User data and databases	Cannot be recreated
High	System configuration files	Manually customized configs
Medium	Package lists and service states	Helps rebuild the environment
Low	Full system snapshot	Quick rollback

1. User Data Backup

Personal Files


# Back up the entire home directory
sudo rsync -avzP /home/ /backup/home/
 
# Or pack with tar
sudo tar czf /backup/home-backup-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz /home/
 
# Back up a specific user only
sudo rsync -avzP /home/username/ /backup/home-username/

Database Backup


# MySQL / MariaDB
mysqldump -u root -p --all-databases > /backup/mysql-all-$(date +%Y%m%d).sql
# Single database
mysqldump -u root -p mydb > /backup/mysql-mydb-$(date +%Y%m%d).sql
 
# PostgreSQL
sudo -u postgres pg_dumpall > /backup/postgres-all-$(date +%Y%m%d).sql
# Single database
sudo -u postgres pg_dump mydb > /backup/postgres-mydb-$(date +%Y%m%d).sql
 
# Redis
redis-cli BGSAVE
sudo cp /var/lib/redis/dump.rdb /backup/redis-$(date +%Y%m%d).rdb
 
# MongoDB
mongodump --out /backup/mongodb-$(date +%Y%m%d)/
 
# SQLite
cp /path/to/database.db /backup/sqlite-$(date +%Y%m%d).db

Website and Application Data


# Web root directory
sudo tar czf /backup/www-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz /var/www/
 
# Docker data volumes
docker volume ls
for vol in $(docker volume ls -q); do
    docker run --rm -v ${vol}:/data -v /backup:/backup ubuntu \
        tar czf /backup/docker-vol-${vol}-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz -C /data .
done
 
# Docker Compose projects
cd /path/to/project && docker compose down
tar czf /backup/docker-project-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz /path/to/project/

2. System Configuration Backup

Key Configuration Files


# Pack the entire /etc directory
sudo tar czf /backup/etc-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz /etc/
 
# Back up key configurations individually
sudo cp -a /etc/ssh/ /backup/ssh-config/
sudo cp -a /etc/nginx/ /backup/nginx-config/
sudo cp -a /etc/apache2/ /backup/apache2-config/
sudo cp -a /etc/netplan/ /backup/netplan-config/
sudo cp -a /etc/samba/ /backup/samba-config/
sudo cp -a /etc/fstab /backup/fstab
sudo cp -a /etc/hosts /backup/hosts
sudo cp -a /etc/crontab /backup/crontab

Cron Jobs


# System cron
sudo cp -a /etc/cron.d/ /backup/cron.d/
sudo cp -a /etc/crontab /backup/crontab
 
# User cron
crontab -l > /backup/crontab-$(whoami)-$(date +%Y%m%d).txt
 
# All users' cron jobs
for user in $(cut -d: -f1 /etc/passwd); do
    cron=$(sudo crontab -u $user -l 2>/dev/null)
    if [ -n "$cron" ]; then
        echo "=== $user ===" >> /backup/crontabs-all.txt
        echo "$cron" >> /backup/crontabs-all.txt
    fi
done

Custom systemd Services


# Back up custom systemd service files
sudo tar czf /backup/systemd-custom-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz \
    /etc/systemd/system/*.service \
    /etc/systemd/system/*.timer \
    /etc/systemd/system/*.mount \
    2>/dev/null

Firewall Rules


# UFW rules
sudo ufw status numbered > /backup/ufw-rules.txt
sudo cp -a /etc/ufw/ /backup/ufw-config/
 
# iptables rules
sudo iptables-save > /backup/iptables-$(date +%Y%m%d).rules
sudo ip6tables-save > /backup/ip6tables-$(date +%Y%m%d).rules

3. System State Recording

Installed Packages


# Full package list
dpkg --get-selections > /backup/packages-selections-$(date +%Y%m%d).txt
 
# Manually installed packages (excluding auto-dependencies)
apt-mark showmanual > /backup/packages-manual-$(date +%Y%m%d).txt
 
# With version numbers
dpkg -l > /backup/packages-versions-$(date +%Y%m%d).txt
 
# Snap packages
snap list > /backup/snap-packages-$(date +%Y%m%d).txt
 
# Flatpak packages (if applicable)
flatpak list > /backup/flatpak-packages-$(date +%Y%m%d).txt 2>/dev/null
 
# pip packages
pip3 list > /backup/pip-packages-$(date +%Y%m%d).txt 2>/dev/null

APT Source Configuration


# DEB822 format sources
sudo cp -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ /backup/apt-sources.list.d/
 
# APT keys
sudo cp -a /etc/apt/keyrings/ /backup/apt-keyrings/ 2>/dev/null
sudo cp -a /usr/share/keyrings/ /backup/usr-keyrings/ 2>/dev/null
 
# APT preferences
sudo cp /etc/apt/preferences.d/* /backup/apt-preferences/ 2>/dev/null

Network Configuration


# Network state
ip addr > /backup/ip-addr-$(date +%Y%m%d).txt
ip route > /backup/ip-route-$(date +%Y%m%d).txt
cat /etc/resolv.conf > /backup/resolv-conf-$(date +%Y%m%d).txt
ss -tlnp > /backup/listening-ports-$(date +%Y%m%d).txt

Running Services


systemctl list-units --type=service --state=running > /backup/services-running-$(date +%Y%m%d).txt
systemctl list-unit-files --state=enabled > /backup/services-enabled-$(date +%Y%m%d).txt

Kernel and Boot Information


uname -a > /backup/kernel-$(date +%Y%m%d).txt
cat /proc/cmdline > /backup/cmdline-$(date +%Y%m%d).txt
dpkg --list | grep linux-image > /backup/kernel-packages-$(date +%Y%m%d).txt

4. Full System Backup

Using Timeshift


# Install Timeshift
sudo apt install timeshift -y
 
# Create a system snapshot (RSYNC mode)
sudo timeshift --create --comments "Pre-upgrade backup $(date +%Y%m%d)" --tags D
 
# List snapshots
sudo timeshift --list

Full Disk Backup with rsync


# Full disk backup to an external drive
sudo rsync -aAXv --exclude={"/dev/*","/proc/*","/sys/*","/tmp/*","/run/*","/mnt/*","/media/*","/lost+found","/backup/*"} / /mnt/backup/full-system/

Disk Image with dd


# Create a full disk image (should be done from a Live USB)
sudo dd if=/dev/sda of=/mnt/external/disk-image-$(date +%Y%m%d).img bs=4M status=progress
 
# Compressed image
sudo dd if=/dev/sda bs=4M status=progress | gzip > /mnt/external/disk-image-$(date +%Y%m%d).img.gz

LVM Snapshots


# If using LVM, create a logical volume snapshot
sudo lvcreate -L 10G -s -n root-snap /dev/vg0/root
 
# After a failed upgrade, you can restore from the snapshot
sudo lvconvert --merge /dev/vg0/root-snap

Virtual Machine Snapshots


# KVM/libvirt VMs
virsh snapshot-create-as vm-name pre-upgrade-$(date +%Y%m%d)
 
# VirtualBox
VBoxManage snapshot "VM Name" take "pre-upgrade"
 
# Cloud servers
# Create a system disk snapshot in the cloud console

5. One-Click Backup Script

Consolidate the above steps into a script:


#!/bin/bash
# pre-upgrade-backup.sh
set -euo pipefail
 
BACKUP_DIR="/backup/pre-upgrade-$(date +%Y%m%d)"
mkdir -p "$BACKUP_DIR"
 
echo "=== Starting pre-upgrade backup ==="
echo "Backup directory: $BACKUP_DIR"
 
# System information
echo ">> Recording system state..."
lsb_release -a > "$BACKUP_DIR/lsb-release.txt" 2>&1
uname -a > "$BACKUP_DIR/kernel.txt"
dpkg --get-selections > "$BACKUP_DIR/packages-selections.txt"
apt-mark showmanual > "$BACKUP_DIR/packages-manual.txt"
systemctl list-units --type=service --state=running > "$BACKUP_DIR/services-running.txt"
ip addr > "$BACKUP_DIR/ip-addr.txt"
ss -tlnp > "$BACKUP_DIR/listening-ports.txt"
 
# Configuration files
echo ">> Backing up configuration files..."
sudo tar czf "$BACKUP_DIR/etc.tar.gz" /etc/ 2>/dev/null
 
# Cron
echo ">> Backing up cron jobs..."
crontab -l > "$BACKUP_DIR/crontab-user.txt" 2>/dev/null || true
 
# Firewall
echo ">> Backing up firewall rules..."
sudo ufw status numbered > "$BACKUP_DIR/ufw-rules.txt" 2>/dev/null || true
sudo iptables-save > "$BACKUP_DIR/iptables.rules" 2>/dev/null || true
 
# Package sources
echo ">> Backing up APT sources..."
cp -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ "$BACKUP_DIR/sources.list.d/" 2>/dev/null || true
 
echo "=== Backup complete ==="
echo "Backup file listing:"
ls -lh "$BACKUP_DIR/"
echo ""
echo "Please also manually back up:"
echo "  - Databases (MySQL/PostgreSQL, etc.)"
echo "  - User data (/home)"
echo "  - Web data (/var/www)"
echo "  - Docker data volumes"
du -sh "$BACKUP_DIR"


# Use the script
chmod +x pre-upgrade-backup.sh
sudo ./pre-upgrade-backup.sh

Backup Verification

After completing backups, be sure to verify their integrity:


# Verify tar archive integrity
tar tzf /backup/etc-*.tar.gz > /dev/null && echo "etc backup is OK"
 
# Verify database backup
# WARNING: a full dump usually contains CREATE DATABASE / USE statements,
# so never SOURCE it directly into a production instance, or it will overwrite existing databases!
# Safe approach 1: only check the integrity of the dump file
gunzip -t /backup/mysql-all-*.sql.gz && echo "database backup archive is intact"
# For an uncompressed .sql, check whether it ends with the dump-completed marker
tail -n1 /backup/mysql-all-20260324.sql | grep -q "Dump completed" && echo "dump is complete"
 
# Safe approach 2: restore and verify in an isolated, throwaway instance (e.g. a separate container/port), never against the production database
 
# Verify file count
echo "Original file count: $(find /etc -type f | wc -l)"
echo "Backup file count: $(tar tzf /backup/etc-*.tar.gz | wc -l)"
 
# Confirm the backup disk has enough space
df -h /backup/