First Backup Walkthrough

Walk through your first GitLab project backup with Cloudback, from triggering the backup to viewing results and downloading the archive.

After connecting your GitLab account to Cloudback, this guide walks you through triggering your first backup and understanding the results.

Prerequisites

• Your GitLab account is connected to Cloudback

• A subscription is assigned to the account

• At least one GitLab project appears in the dashboard

Triggering Your First Backup

While Cloudback will automatically back up your projects on schedule, you can trigger a backup immediately:

1. Navigate to the GitLab section in the left sidebar

2. Select the checkbox next to the project you want to back up

3. Click the Trigger button in the toolbar

Alternatively, from the project details page, click Backup now.

What Happens During Backup

A GitLab backup has:

1. Repository clone — Cloudback performs a bare Git clone of the repository, including all branches, tags, and refs. Git LFS objects are also fetched.

2. Metadata download — Issues, merge requests, labels, milestones, boards, members, and notes are downloaded via the GitLab API.

Viewing Backup Results

Once complete:

1. The Backup column shows Succeeded (green) or Failed (red)

2. The Last Run column shows elapsed time

Click on the project to view detailed results on the Project Details page:

Overview Tab:

• Settings — Current schedule, storage, retention

• Statistics — Backup time and size charts

• Last Backup — Status, time, size, deduplication, storage, and collected metadata counts:

  • Issues, issue notes, merge requests, MR notes

  • Labels, milestones, boards

• Deduplication — Savings over time

Backups Tab:

• Complete backup history with download and restore options

Downloading Your Backup

1. On the Backups tab, click the Download icon

2. The archive is a password-protected ZIP file (AES-256). The password-protection can be disabled in settings if desired.

3. The password is emailed automatically (if password-protection is enabled).

4. Use 7-Zip to extract (Windows built-in ZIP doesn't support AES)

Inside the archive you'll find:

• repo/{ProjectName}.git/ — The bare Git repository

• JSON metadata files (issues, MRs, labels, milestones, boards, members, notes)

Dashboard Columns

The GitLab dashboard shows:

Column	Description
Select	Checkbox for bulk operations
Account	GitLab account/group name
Project	Project name (clickable for details)
Status	Scheduled / Not scheduled / Restore only
Schedule	Backup schedule name
Storage	Storage location
Retention	Retention policy
Backup	Last backup status
Last Run	Time since last backup

Next Steps

• Customize settings: Change schedule, storage, or retention from the Project Details page or from the dashboard using bulk edit

• Set up notifications: Get alerts for backup success/failure via Slack, Discord, or Teams

Learn More

• GitLab Backup Contents — Full details on what's backed up

• GitLab: Restoring Data — How to restore

• Cross-Platform Restore — GitHub ↔ GitLab migration

• Automated Daily Backups — Schedule configuration