Backup & restore

DO NOT FORGET YOUR PASSWORD and BACKUP YOUR KEYSTORE

Backup & restore

Data directory

Everything geth persists gets written inside its data directory (except for the PoW Ethash DAG, see note below). The default data directory locations are platform specific:

  • Mac: ~/Library/Ethereum
  • Linux: ~/.ethereum
  • Windows: %APPDATA%\Ethereum

Accounts are stored in the keystore subdirectory. The contents of this directories should be transportable between nodes, platforms, implementations (C++, Go, Python).

To configure the location of the data directory, the --datadir parameter can be specified. See CLI Options for more details.

Note: The Ethash DAG is stored at ~/.ethash (Mac/Linux) or %APPDATA%\Ethash (Windows) so that it can be reused by all clients. You can store this in a different location by using a symbolic link.

Upgrades

Sometimes the internal database formats need updating (for example, when upgrade from before 0.9.20). This can be run with the following command (geth should not be otherwise running):

geth upgradedb

Cleanup

Geth’s blockchain and state databases can be removed with:

geth removedb

This is useful for deleting an old chain and sync’ing to a new one. It only affects data directories that can be re-created on synchronisation and does not touch the keystore.

Blockchain import/export

Export the blockchain in binary format with:

geth export <filename>

Or if you want to back up portions of the chain over time, a first and last block can be specified. For example, to back up the first epoch:

geth export <filename> 0 29999

Note that when backing up a partial chain, the file will be appended rather than truncated.

Import binary-format blockchain exports with:

geth import <filename>

See https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/Blockchain-import-export for more info

And finally: DO NOT FORGET YOUR PASSWORD and BACKUP YOUR KEYSTORE