Documentation

influxd-ctl backup

The influxd-ctl backup command backs up an InfluxDB Enterprise cluster’s metastore and shard data at that point in time and stores the copy in the specified directory.

To back up only the cluster metastore, use the -strategy only-meta flag. Backups are incremental by default, meaning they create a copy of the metastore and shard data that have changed since the previous incremental backup. If there are no existing incremental backups, the system automatically performs a complete backup.

Backup strategies

InfluxDB Enterprise supports the following backup strategies:

  • only-meta: Back up metastore data only, including users, roles, databases, continuous queries, and retention policies. This strategy does not back up shards.
  • full: Back up metastore and all shard data.
  • incremental: (Default) Back up metastore and shard data that has changed since the last incremental backup. If there are no existing incremental backups, the system automatically performs a full backup.

Usage

influxd-ctl backup [flags] <backup-dir>

Arguments

  • backup-dir: Directory to store backup files in

Flags

FlagDescription
-dbDatabase to backup
-endEnd date for backup (RFC3339 timestamp)
-estimateEstimate the size of the requested backup
-fromData node TCP address to prefer when backing up
-fullPerform an full backup (deprecated in favour of -strategy full)
-rpRetention policy to backup
-shardShard ID to backup
-startStart date for backup (RFC3339 timestamp)
-strategyBackup strategy to use (only-meta, full, or incremental)

Examples

Perform an incremental backup

influxd-ctl backup /path/to/backup-dir

Perform a full backup

influxd-ctl backup -strategy full /path/to/backup-dir

Estimate the size of a backup

influxd-ctl backup -estimate

Backup data from a specific time range

influxd-ctl backup \
  -start 2023-01-01T00:00:00Z \
  -end 2023-06-01T00:00:00Z \
  /path/to/backup-dir

Backup a specific shard

influxd-ctl backup -shard 00 /path/to/backup-dir

Was this page helpful?

Thank you for your feedback!


New in InfluxDB 3.5

Key enhancements in InfluxDB 3.5 and the InfluxDB 3 Explorer 1.3.

See the Blog Post

InfluxDB 3.5 is now available for both Core and Enterprise, introducing custom plugin repository support, enhanced operational visibility with queryable CLI parameters and manual node management, stronger security controls, and general performance improvements.

InfluxDB 3 Explorer 1.3 brings powerful new capabilities including Dashboards (beta) for saving and organizing your favorite queries, and cache querying for instant access to Last Value and Distinct Value caches—making Explorer a more comprehensive workspace for time series monitoring and analysis.

For more information, check out:

InfluxDB Docker latest tag changing to InfluxDB 3 Core

On November 3, 2025, the latest tag for InfluxDB Docker images will point to InfluxDB 3 Core. To avoid unexpected upgrades, use specific version tags in your Docker deployments.

If using Docker to install and run InfluxDB, the latest tag will point to InfluxDB 3 Core. To avoid unexpected upgrades, use specific version tags in your Docker deployments. For example, if using Docker to run InfluxDB v2, replace the latest version tag with a specific version tag in your Docker pull command–for example:

docker pull influxdb:2