To make a back up of the current PostgreSQL database, make sure it's running and then execute a command like this on the server:
```bash
docker run \
--rm \
--log-driver=none \
--network=matrix \
/usr/bin/docker exec \
--env-file=/matrix/postgres/env-postgres-psql \
docker.io/postgres:13.1-alpine \
pg_dumpall -h matrix-postgres \
matrix-postgres \
/usr/local/bin/pg_dumpall -h matrix-postgres \
| gzip -c \
> /postgres.sql.gz
> /matrix/postgres.sql.gz
```
If you are using an [external Postgres server](configuring-playbook-external-postgres.md), the above command will not work, because the credentials file (`/matrix/postgres/env-postgres-psql`) is not available.
If your server is on the ARM32 [architecture](alternative-architectures.md), you may need to remove the `-alpine` suffix from the image name in the command above.
If you are using an [external Postgres server](configuring-playbook-external-postgres.md), the above command will not work, because neither the credentials file (`/matrix/postgres/env-postgres-psql`), nor the `matrix-postgres` container is available.
Restoring a backup made this way can be done by [importing it](importing-postgres.md).