Kanboard uses Sqlite by default to store its data. All tasks, projects and users are stored inside this database.

Technically, the database is just a single file located inside the directory data and named db.sqlite.

Export/Backup

Command line

Doing a backup is very easy, just copy the file data/db.sqlite somewhere else when nobody use the software.

If you want to do a backup while users are connected, you can use sqlite3 to create the backup.

• You can dump the database to a text file of sql commands like this: sqlite3 db.sqlite .dump > kanboard.dump.sql
• Another option is to create a backup in sqlite format: sqlite3 db.sqlite ".backup kanboard.backup.sqlite"

User interface

You can also download at any time the database directly from the Settings menu.

The downloaded database is compressed with Gzip, the filename becomes db.sqlite.gz.

Import/Restoration

There is actually no way to restore the database from the user interface. The restoration must be done manually when no body use the software.

• To restore an old backup, just replace and overwrite the actual file data/db.sqlite.
• To uncompress a gzipped database, execute this command from a terminal gunzip db.sqlite.gz.
• A backup in sql format, can be restored like this: sqlite3 db.sqlite < kanboard.dump.sql (db.sqlite must not exist)
• A backup in sqlite format, can be restored like this: sqlite3 db.sqlite ".restore kanboard.backup.sqlite"

Optimization

Occasionally, it’s possible to optimize the database file by running the command VACUUM. This command rebuild the entire database and can be used for several reasons:

• Reduce the file size, deleting data produce empty space but doesn’t change the file size.
• The database is fragmented due to frequent inserts or updates.

From the command line

sqlite3 data/db.sqlite 'VACUUM'

From the user interface

Go to the Settings menu and click on the link Optimize the database.

For more information, read the Sqlite documentation.

Notes

• Since Kanboard v1.2.27, WAL mode is enabled by default. If you would like to disable this feature, change the value of DB_WAL_MODE to false.