Updates and backups

Update the panel

cd deploy
docker compose pull
docker compose up -d

• The panel applies database migrations when it starts. Back up first (below), so you can go back.
• Game servers keep running: they run on the nodes, not in the panel. The agents reconnect within seconds.
• Installed apps on phones pick up the new version on their next start.

Update the agents

On each node, pull the agent’s image and recreate its container:

docker compose -f compose.agent.yml pull
docker compose -f compose.agent.yml up -d

The node keeps its identity, and the agent picks up the running game servers again.

Update both

The panel and the agents speak a versioned protocol. When it changes, an agent of the other version is refused (protocol_mismatch) and its node shows offline until the agent is updated too. Update the panel first, then the agents.

Back up the panel

Two things, and they belong together:

1. The database: users, tenants, servers, settings, and the encrypted secrets and their keys.
2. The master key (keys/master.key): it decrypts the keys in the database. A database backup without it can be restored, but Steam passwords and secret variables can’t be read anymore, and everyone has to sign in again.

cd deploy
docker compose exec -T postgres pg_dump -U panel -d panel -Fc > panel-$(date +%F).dump

Keep the dumps and keys/master.key in different places: someone with both can read the secrets.

Restore

1. Start an empty database: docker compose up -d postgres
2. Load the dump:

   docker compose exec -T postgres pg_restore -U panel -d panel --no-owner < panel-2026-10-15.dump

3. Put the same keys/master.key in place and start the panel: docker compose up -d

The nodes reconnect on their own; their identity is in the database.

What lives on the nodes

The panel’s backup doesn’t contain the game servers’ files. They are on the nodes, in /var/lib/panel-agent:

Folder	Contents
servers/	the game servers’ files
backups/	server backups made in the panel
console/	console logs
agent.json	the node’s identity (new enrollment token: a new one)

Server backups stay on the node they were made on. To keep copies elsewhere, back up /var/lib/panel-agent/backups/ with your usual tools (restic, Borg, a NAS sync); copies to S3 or a NAS from the panel itself are planned.