Backing Up and Restoring Game Server Data

Regular backups protect your game server world saves, configurations, and plugins from data loss.

What to Back Up by Game

• Minecraft: ~/server/world/, ~/server/server.properties, ~/server/plugins/
• Rust: ~/rustserver/server/myserver/ (contains save files)
• Valheim: ~/.config/unity3d/IronGate/Valheim/worlds_local/
• ARK: ~/arkserver/ShooterGame/Saved/
• Project Zomboid: ~/Zomboid/Saves/
• CS2: ~/cs2server/game/csgo/cfg/

Simple Backup Script

nano ~/gamebackup.sh

#!/bin/bash
DATE=$(date +%Y-%m-%d_%H-%M)
GAME="minecraft"
SAVE_DIR="$HOME/server/world"
BACKUP_DIR="$HOME/backups"
mkdir -p "$BACKUP_DIR"
tar -czf "$BACKUP_DIR/${GAME}-${DATE}.tar.gz" "$SAVE_DIR"
# Keep only the last 10 backups
ls -t "$BACKUP_DIR"/${GAME}-*.tar.gz | tail -n +11 | xargs rm -f
echo "Backup complete."

chmod +x ~/gamebackup.sh
# Schedule: crontab -e → 0 4 * * * ~/gamebackup.sh

Restore from Backup

# Stop the server first
screen -S minecraft -X stuff "stop$(printf '
')"
sleep 10

# Extract backup
tar -xzf ~/backups/minecraft-2026-04-01_04-00.tar.gz -C ~/server/
echo "Restore complete — start the server."

Tips

• Always stop the server before backing up live world files to avoid corruption
• Store a copy of backups off-server (use rclone to sync to cloud storage)
• Test your restore process periodically