First Backup Walkthrough

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

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

Prerequisites

Before starting, ensure:

• Your Linear workspace is connected to Cloudback

• A subscription is assigned to the workspace

• The workspace appears in the Linear dashboard

Triggering Your First Backup

While Cloudback will automatically back up your workspace on the configured schedule (default: daily at 6:00 AM), you can trigger a backup immediately:

1. Navigate to the Linear section in the left sidebar

2. Select the checkbox next to your workspace

3. Click the Trigger button in the toolbar

Alternatively, you can trigger a backup from the workspace details page:

1. Click on your workspace name to open the Workspace Details page

2. Click the Backup now button in the top-right corner

The backup process begins immediately. You'll see a progress indicator in the dashboard.

Monitoring Backup Progress

While the backup is running:

• The Backup column in the dashboard shows In Progress with a blue indicator

• On the Workspace Details page, a running status badge replaces the Backup now button

Viewing Backup Results

Once the backup completes:

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

2. The Last Run column shows how long ago the backup completed (e.g., "2 minutes ago")

Workspace Details Page

Click on your workspace to view detailed results:

Overview Tab:

• Settings section shows your current schedule, storage, and retention policy

• Statistics section shows backup time and size charts over the selected period

• Last Backup section shows the most recent backup details including:

  • Status, start time, elapsed time, archive size

  • Deduplication status

  • Storage location

  • Collected metadata — a comprehensive breakdown showing counts for:

    • Teams, Projects, Issues, Comments

    • Cycles, Documents, Labels, Project Labels

    • Custom Views, Initiatives, Templates (issue/project/document)

    • Project Updates, Initiative Updates

    • Project Milestones, Users, Attachments

    • Embedded Files (successful + failed)

    • External Users

Backups Tab:

• Lists all backup archives with status, time, size, and storage

• Click the Information icon to view details for any backup

• Use the Download button to download the archive

• Use the Restore button to start a restore operation

Restores Tab:

• Shows any restore operations (empty after your first backup)

Downloading Your First Backup

To download and inspect the backup archive:

1. On the Workspace Details page, click the Backups tab

2. Click the Download icon on your first backup

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

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

To extract the archive, use a tool that supports AES-256 encryption (e.g., 7-Zip). Windows built-in ZIP handler does not support AES encryption.

The archive contains JSON files organized in directories. See Linear Backup Contents for the full structure.

Understanding the Dashboard Columns

The Linear dashboard shows the following columns for your workspace:

Column	Description
Select	Checkbox for bulk operations
Workspace	Linear workspace name (clickable to open details)
Name	Subject name within the workspace
Type	Type of backup subject
Status	Scheduled, Not scheduled, or Restore only
Schedule	Backup schedule name (e.g., "Daily at 6 am")
Storage	Storage location (e.g., "Cloudback US")
Retention	Retention policy (e.g., "Last 30 days")
Backup	Last backup status (Succeeded / Failed / In Progress)
Last Run	Time since last backup

Next Steps

• Customize settings: Change backup schedule, storage, or retention from the Workspace Details page

• Set up notifications: Configure instant notifications for backup success/failure via Slack, Discord, or Microsoft Teams

• Enable deduplication: Reduce storage usage by enabling data deduplication on your storage

• Explore restore: Learn how to restore data from a backup

Learn More

• Linear Backup Contents — What's included in each backup

• Automated Daily Backups — Schedule configuration

• Instant Notifications — Set up backup alerts

• Download Backups — Download and extract archives