Mustard Server Backup Strategy

This document describes the established Mustard backup layers, storage separation, source-authority boundaries, and known recovery considerations. It does not provide an unverified restore procedure.

Document Scope

This document covers:

Pterodactyl backup policy during the testing phase.
SimpleBackups storage and retained policy.
The separation between Git-maintained source and runtime or world backups.
Recovery boundaries that must be verified before destructive action.

Detailed SimpleBackups configuration remains canonical in minecraft-projects.

Backup Layers

Mustard uses two complementary backup layers:

Layer	Role
Pterodactyl backups	Manual whole-server backup points during the testing phase
SimpleBackups	Scheduled world-oriented backup data stored on a dedicated external mount

These backup layers protect runtime state. They do not replace Git for maintained configuration, datapacks, TreePacks, compatibility source, or scripts.

Pterodactyl Backups

The configured Pterodactyl backup limit is:

Backups are currently created manually during the testing phase. Automated production backup policy remains future work.

Pterodactyl backup storage is configured beneath:

/mnt/backups/wings/

SimpleBackups

SimpleBackups writes through the external mount:

Item	Path
Host source	/mnt/backups/minecraft-world-backups/mustard.gorgarath.net/
Container target	/home/container/simplebackups/

Keeping SimpleBackups outside the normal container tree prevents Pterodactyl backups from recursively including those archives and allows the data to persist independently of the container filesystem.

The retained configuration uses modified-since-full backups, a 10,080-minute full-backup interval, a 120-minute regular interval, 14 retained backups, compression level 5, and a 200 GB storage limit. Backups do not run while no players are online.

Detailed values and source-specific maintenance notes remain in the canonical SimpleBackups configuration.

Source and Runtime Authority

Git-maintained source and runtime recovery data have different responsibilities:

minecraft-projects is canonical for the curated Mustard configuration, datapacks, TreePacks, compatibility source, and maintained scripts.
Pterodactyl and SimpleBackups archives preserve runtime and world state.
Git is not a substitute for world or runtime recovery backups.
A runtime backup is not source authority for maintained project files merely because it contains deployed copies.

When restoring a server, reconcile maintained project files with their current Git source rather than promoting an arbitrary archived deployment copy to canonical source.

Recovery Considerations

Before a migration or recovery, verify:

The required Pterodactyl backup is available.
The SimpleBackups external mount is present on the destination node.
Required runtime and world data are accessible.
Current Git-maintained source can be redeployed separately.
Network and storage dependencies documented in server-environment.md are available.

A detailed, tested restore sequence is not currently documented. Do not invent or execute a destructive recovery procedure without separately verified instructions and owner authorization.

Document	Purpose
server-environment.md	Storage mounts, backup limit, and deployed environment
server-management.md	Normal maintenance workflow
server-configuration.md	Operational settings and curated-config relationship
Mustard configuration source	Canonical SimpleBackups and other curated configuration

Change History

2026-09-25

Consolidated the Pterodactyl and SimpleBackups policies, external-storage rationale, retained schedule summary, source/runtime authority boundary, and known recovery limits.