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Ensuring regular backups of your Jenkins instance is vital for disaster recovery, maintaining data integrity, and quickly restoring accidentally deleted configurations. This guide walks you through various backup methods and highlights the critical directories and files you should preserve.
Schedule your backups according to your change management policy—daily incremental snapshots plus weekly full backups often strike a good balance between data safety and storage cost.

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Backup Approaches

Choose one or combine multiple methods to build a resilient backup strategy:
MethodDescriptionProsCons
Filesystem SnapshotsUse Linux LVM snapshots or cloud provider block snapshots for point-in-time consistency.Fast, consistentRequires compatible storage subsystem
Jenkins Backup PluginsThinBackup is the only actively maintained plugin for automated backup of Jenkins home.Easy setup, schedules automated jobsPlugin limitations; may not catch all data
Custom Shell ScriptsScripts to rsync or tar the essential Jenkins directories to remote storage.Fully customizableRequires maintenance and testing
Hybrid StrategyPerform local backups first, then transfer archives to offsite or object storage (S3, GCS).Maximizes redundancyInvolves additional network/config steps

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Essential Files and Directories

Jenkins stores all configuration, job definitions, plugins, and credentials in the JENKINS_HOME directory (default: /var/lib/jenkins). Backing up the entire directory is feasible but may be overkill. Focus on the components below: 
$ tree /var/lib/jenkins
builds
├── [BUILD_ID]
│   ├── build.xml
│   └── changelog.xml
config.xml
*.xml
fingerprints
identity.key.enc
jobs
├── [JOBNAME]
│   └── config.xml
plugins
secrets
├── hudson.util.Secret
├── master.key
└── InstanceIdentity.KEY
userContent
workspace
ComponentPurpose
config.xmlMain Jenkins system settings (global configuration).
*.xmlOther site-wide configs (e.g., credentials.xml, nodes.xml).
jobs/Job definitions and build histories. Exclude large artifacts if storage is limited.
plugins/Installed plugins (.jpi, .hpi). You can reinstall plugins from the update center if needed.
secrets/Encryption keys and credentials.
userContent/Static files served via https://<jenkins>/userContent/.
workspace/Working directories for SCM checkouts (typically safe to skip; recreated on build).
Never store unencrypted secret keys or credentials in public or shared backup locations. Always encrypt backups that include the secrets/ directory.

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Restoring Jenkins

  1. Stop the Jenkins service: 
    sudo systemctl stop jenkins
  2. Restore your backup archive or snapshot to JENKINS_HOME.
  3. Ensure correct ownership and permissions: 
    sudo chown -R jenkins:jenkins /var/lib/jenkins
  4. Start Jenkins and verify logs for any errors: 
    sudo systemctl start jenkins
sudo journalctl -u jenkins -f

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