Documentation

influxd-ctl restore

The influxd-ctl restore command restores data backed up from an InfluxDB Enterprise cluster.

influxd-ctl restore supports full, incremental, and metadata-only backups. To restore from a full backup, include the -full flag and provide the path to the backup manifest (/path/to/backups/backup.manifest). To restore from an incremental or metadata backup, provide the path to the directory that contains the backup files (/path/to/backups).

Destination database must be empty

The database data is restored to must be empty. influxd-ctl restore will fail if the destination database contains data.

Usage

influxd-ctl restore [flags] <backup-location>

Arguments

  • backup-location: Location of backup-related files. They type of backup you’re restoring from determines the type and location of backup files:

    • Restore from a full backup: Provide the path to the backup manifest file
    • Restore from an incremental backup: Provide the directory path of the backup
    • Restore from a metadata-only backup: Provide the directory path of the backup

Flags

FlagDescription
-dbDatabase to restore (if the backup contains more than one)
-fullRestore data from a full backup
-listList the contents of the backup
-meta-only-overwrite-forceRestore only metadata from a backup Danger: see below
-newdbChange database name when restoring (requires -db flag)
-newdurationChange retention policy duration (shard expiry) when restoring (requires -rp flag, use 0s for infinite)
-newrfNew replication factor to use during restore (limited by cluster size)
-newrpChange retention policy name when restoring (requires -rp flag)
-newshardShard ID to restore into (if different from the shard ID in the backup)
-rpRetention policy to restore (if the backup contains more than one)
-shardShard ID to restore

Only use the -meta-only-overwrite-force flag to restore from backups of the destination cluster. Metadata includes shard assignments to data nodes, so if you use this flag with metadata from a different cluster, you will lose data.

See Back up and restore for instructions on using this flag.

Examples

Restore from a full backup

influxd-ctl restore -full /path/to/full-backup/20230101T00000Z.manifest

View example output

Restore from an incremental backup

In this example, the restore command restores an incremental backup stored in the my-incremental-backup/ directory.

influxd-ctl restore /path/to/incremental-backup/

View example output

Restore from a metadata backup

In this example, the restore command restores an metadata backup stored in the metadata-backup/ directory.

influxd-ctl restore /path/to/metadata-backup/

View example output


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New in InfluxDB 3.6

Key enhancements in InfluxDB 3.6 and the InfluxDB 3 Explorer 1.4.

See the Blog Post

InfluxDB 3.6 is now available for both Core and Enterprise. This release introduces the 1.4 update to InfluxDB 3 Explorer, featuring the beta launch of Ask AI, along with new capabilities for simple startup and expanded functionality in the Processing Engine.

For more information, check out:

InfluxDB Docker latest tag changing to InfluxDB 3 Core

On February 3, 2026, 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