Backing Up Your Windrose Server

Back up your Windrose server before major changes so you have a restore point if something goes wrong.

Automatic Backups

WinterNode automatically backs up your entire server every 12 hours. These backups cover everything, so most disaster-recovery scenarios are already handled.

Manual backups are useful when you want a snapshot at a specific moment, like right before:

• A major game update
• Uploading a different world
• Changing server configuration

What to Back Up

For a complete Windrose backup, you need two things:

1. Your world archive Location: R5/Saved/SaveProfiles/Default/RocksDB_v2_Backups/Worlds/<world-id>/<world-id>_<version>_Latest.zip

Each world lives in a folder named with a 32-character hex ID, and inside it is a single archive named like 9BFA361CEA044A08919986B7F32066A8_0.10.0_Latest.zip. That archive is a self-contained snapshot: terrain, structures, player progress, and the world’s own WorldDescription.json. Copying it is all you need to preserve the world.

2. The server config Location: R5/ServerDescription.json

This file holds your server name, invite code, password, and the WorldIslandId field that tells the server which world to load. If you restore a world archive without also restoring this file, the server may point at a different world.

How to Take a Manual Backup

Step 1: Stop Your Server

Stop the server before downloading files. This ensures the files are in a consistent state (not mid-write).

1. Log in to the Game Control Panel
2. Select your Windrose server
3. Click Stop and wait for shutdown to complete

Step 2: Download the World Archive

1. In the Game Control Panel, go to File Manager

2. Navigate to R5/Saved/SaveProfiles/Default/RocksDB_v2_Backups/Worlds/

3. Open your world’s folder (the 32-character hex folder). If you have more than one and are unsure which is which, open a _Latest.zip and read AdditionalRecordFiles/WorldDescription.json to check the WorldName field.

4. Find the file ending in _Latest.zip

5. Click the … next to it and select Download

6. Store it somewhere safe (external drive, cloud storage)

If you want a full history rather than just the newest state, download the dated archives sitting alongside _Latest.zip as well.

Step 3: Download the Server Config

1. In File Manager, navigate to R5/
2. Find ServerDescription.json
3. Click the … next to it and select Download
4. Store it alongside your world folder backup

Step 4: Restart Your Server

1. In the Game Control Panel, click Start.
2. Wait for the server status to show Online. This usually takes 1-2 minutes.

How to Restore from a Backup

Restoring is the reverse of uploading a world. Full instructions are in How to Upload an Existing World to Your Windrose Server, but here’s the short version:

1. Stop your server and wait until it shows Offline
2. Upload your _Latest.zip to R5/Saved/SaveProfiles/Default/RocksDB_v2_Backups/Worlds/<world-id>/, creating that folder if it does not exist
3. Leave the ZIP as-is. Do not extract it and do not rename it
4. Upload ServerDescription.json back to R5/ (overwrite the existing file)
5. Check that WorldIslandId in ServerDescription.json matches the world folder’s hex name
6. Start your server

If the server loads a new empty world, the archive is missing or unreadable rather than the ID being wrong. See Windrose Server Keeps Generating a New World.

Why the Archive Is the Backup

Windrose stores live world data in RocksDB, a database made of many files (CURRENT, MANIFEST-*, LOCK, IDENTITY, LOG, *.sst) that are only valid as a complete set. Those files sit under RocksDB_v2/.

You do not back them up. On every startup, the server reads each world’s _Latest.zip from RocksDB_v2_Backups/ and extracts it over RocksDB_v2/, so the runtime folder is disposable and the archive is the authoritative copy. The archive holds a consistent database checkpoint, which is why it can be copied safely while a plain folder copy cannot.

Windrose’s Own Automatic Backups

Windrose writes its own archives on a schedule, into the same place you back up from:

R5/Saved/SaveProfiles/Default/RocksDB_v2_Backups/Worlds/<world-id>/

Alongside _Latest.zip you will find older dated archives for that world. To roll back to one, stop the server, copy the older archive, and rename the copy so it ends in _Latest.zip with the world ID and version at the front unchanged. Keep the original _Latest.zip under a different name first if you might want the newer state back.