Nice Backup - Minecraft World Backup Plugin for Endstone

Nice Backup is a plugin for Endstone enabled Minecraft Bedrock Dedicated Servers that provides live automated world backup without the need to stop the server. It allows server administrators to schedule regular backups of their hosted Minecraft Bedrock worlds with zero downtime. Backup files are stored as .mcworld files to allow easy importing into Minecraft Bedrock Edition clients.

Features

• Automated periodic backups with cron scheduling.
• Backups saved in .mcworld format for portability.
• Enable/disable compression of backup files.
• Configurable backup retention policy.

Usage

How to install and use the Nice Backup plugin.

Installation

Download the latest .whl file from the releases page and save it to the bedrock_server/plugins directory under the Endstone root folder. Restart the server to load the plugin.

Backups

Backups are automatically created daily at 3 AM. The schedule can be customized using cron expressions (see Scheduling).

The last 3 backups are retained by default. Old backups are automatically deleted based on the retention policy configuration.

Backups can be manually triggered using the /nice_backup command in the server console or in-game (must have op permissions).

Backups are saved in the bedrock_server/backups directory. Each backup file is named with the world name and timestamp, e.g., MyWorld_20231010_153000.mcworld.

Restoring

To restore a world from a backup:

1. Stop the Minecraft Bedrock Dedicated Server.
2. (Optional) Rename the existing world folder (e.g. MyWorld to MyWorld_old).
3. Locate the backup file to restore in the bedrock_server/backups directory.
4. Extract the contents of the .mcworld file using an archive tool (e.g., 7-Zip, WinRAR, etc.) into a folder with the same name as the world (e.g., MyWorld).
5. Start the server. The world should now be restored to the state of the backup.

[!IMPORTANT]

The extracted folder name should exactly match the level-name property in server.properties.

[!TIP]

The .mcworld file can be imported directly into Minecraft Bedrock Edition on a client device by double-clicking the file on desktop or opening via a file manager on mobile devices.

Configuration

Customize the plugin by modifying the config.toml file in the bedrock_server/plugins/nicebackup directory. See the config.toml file for all available options and their descriptions.

Scheduling

The backup schedule can be customized by modifying the schedule option in config.toml. schedule uses cron expressions to define when backups should occur.

Examples:

• Every hour: 0 * * * *
• Every 6 hours: 0 */6 * * *
• Daily at 3 AM: 0 3 * * *
• Weekly on Sundays at 5 AM: 0 5 * * 0

Retention

Retention policies are configured under the [retention] section of config.toml.

• Set a value to 0 to disable that rule.
• Rules are combined (OR): a backup is kept if any enabled rule selects it.
• Retention is based on the backup file's modification time.
• Only the latest backup per time period is kept.

Options:

• keep_last: Keep the most recent N backups, regardless of age.
• keep_days: Keep all backups from the last X days.
• keep_hourly: Keep one backup per hour for the last X hours.
• keep_daily: Keep one backup per day for the last X days.
• keep_weekly: Keep one backup per week for the last X weeks.
• keep_monthly: Keep one backup per month for the last X months.

[!NOTE]

keep_days and keep_daily are different: keep_days keeps all backups from the last X days, while keep_daily keeps only one backup per day for the last X days.

How It Works

Nice Backup utilizes the save hold, save query, and save resume (minecraft.wiki) console commands to create consistent and robust backups without stopping the server.

1. When a backup is initiated, the plugin sends the save hold command. This flushes all pending data to disk and places the server in a state ready for backup.
2. The save query command is polled until the server confirms the data is ready. On success, it returns a list of files and the exact size in bytes to be copied for each one.
3. All world file data is copied directly to a zip archive (or a folder if compression is disabled); if a file exists in the list from the previous step, the plugin only copies the specified bytes to ensure data consistency.
4. The save resume command is sent to the server to resume normal operations.

All files under the world directory are backed up, including resource packs, behavior packs, and other files not included in the save query file list.

[!WARNING]

Players may experience a brief lag spike during the backup process. It may be preferable to schedule backups during low player activity periods to minimize impact.

Troubleshooting

Timeout Issues

For larger worlds, backups may take longer than the default timeout period (60 seconds). Adjust the timeout option in config.toml if you encounter timeout errors during backup. Also, consider only running backups during off-peak hours as users may experience increased lag during the backup process.

[!WARNING]

This plugin has not been extensively tested with very large worlds (multiple GBs). Any issues or feedback are appreciated.

TODO

• Option to notify players in-game when a backup has started/completed with a configurable message.
• Send status messages to the in-game console for the op that triggers commands.
• Improve configuration saving and loading.
• Use Pathlib for file path manipulations.

Ideas

Some potential features for future releases:

• External notifications (e.g., Discord, email) on backup success/failure.
• Support for cloud storage (e.g., AWS S3, Google Drive).

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please open issues for bug reports or feature requests. Pull requests for improvements or new features are appreciated.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.