Improve Documentation Section 5.3.2. Configuration Backups #5676
Description
Hi,
I'm currently installing a couchdb and wanted to take care for backup/restore, and found the documentation to be rather vague about this.
The dockerhub page at
https://hub.docker.com/_/couchdb
tells to just cover /opt/couchdb/data as a persistent volume.
But then, its entrypoint touches /opt/couchdb/etc/local.d/docker.ini, where couchdb writes some configuration in, i.e. at least
[admins]
admin = ...
[couchdb]
uuid = ...
[chttpd_auth]
secret = ...
while https://docs.couchdb.org/en/stable/maintenance/backups.html recommends to backup the full /opt/couchdb/etc directory, and says
Simple back up the entire etc/ directory to ensure a consistent configuration after restoring from backup.
which not really states, what happens, if I don't have a backup of etc.
E.g. what happens if the uuid= or secret= .. is lost and the database is just started from scratch with a regenerated docker.ini.
What happens if the uuid or the hostname changes? Can I still access the database, will it accept the data files? Will it break replication?
What happens, if I start a new docker instance, and do mount a a docker.ini with old values into the etc directory, but don't make it writable?
What exactly does the statement "to ensure a consistent configuration after restoring from backup." mean? What will work, and what won't work, if etc has not been restored?
regards
Hadmut