How to Backup Valheim Dedicated Server

In this video I share my method for backup and restore of my Dedicated Valheim Server worlds. I only back up the worlds directory, so the scope of the backup is strictly the world itself and not the Valheim Server binaries.

Follow my instructions on how to install Valheim Server first: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4llm0M0FaG0

# vi backup.sh

#!/bin/bash
####################################
#
# Backup Valheim Saved game to a
# specified folder.
#
####################################

# What to backup.
backup_files="/home/steam/.config/unity3d/IronGate/Valheim/worlds"
backup_file_name="valheim"

# Specify which directory to backup to.
# Make sure you have enough space to hold {n} days of backups.
dest="/home/steam/backups"

# Create backup archive filename.
day=$(date +"%Y-%m-%d_%H-%M-%S")
archive_file="$day-$backup_file_name.tar.gz"

# Stop valheimserver Server
systemctl stop valheimserver

# Backup the files using tar.
tar zcvf $dest/$archive_file $backup_files

# Clear backups
/home/steam/clear_backups.sh

# Start valheimserver Server
systemctl start valheimserver

# chmod +x backup.sh

# vi clear_backups.sh

#!/bin/bash
####################################
#
# Clean up Valheim saved game to a
# specified folder.
#
####################################

# -mtime +30 means any file older than 30 days
find /home/steam/backups -type f -mtime +30 -exec rm -f {} \;

# chmod +x clear_backups.sh

# crontab -l

0 3 * * * /home/steam/backup.sh

Restoring a backup:

E.g.

# Stop Valheim Server
systemctl stop valheimserver

# Remove existing data
rm -rf /home/steam/.config/unity3d/IronGate/Valheim/worlds/*

# Restore a saved file.
tar -xvf /home/steam/backups/2021-02-18_03-00-01-valheim.tar.gz -C /

# Restore permissions on files
chown steam:steam -R /home/steam/.config/unity3d/IronGate/Valheim/worlds

# Start Valheim Server
systemctl start valheimserver