Migrating OttoFMS install to a new server
Move OttoFMS to a new server while preserving your API keys, webhooks, offsite backup schedules, and other saved configuration.
There may come a time when you need to redeploy a server and need to keep all of your OttoFMS data so that the new server will work on startup. Generally webhooks, API keys, offsite backup schedules, and other configuration will need to be carried over to the new server so that they continue to work.
Recommended: Config Transfer
On OttoFMS 4.18.0 and later, the recommended way to carry your configuration to a new server is Config Transfer. From the "Config Transfer" card in Settings > OttoFMS Config, export an encrypted bundle of your configuration and stored secrets from the old server, then import it on the new one. This covers app settings and API keys, offsite remotes and schedules, webhooks, MCP servers, build & deployment history, file notes, and developer tool history — without needing OS-level access to either server.
See the Config Transfer page for exactly what's included, what's excluded, and how the export/import flow works.
A few things still need to be handled outside of Config Transfer: your OttoFMS license needs to be entered separately on the new server, and hosted FileMaker files and their backups still need to be copied over manually.
Manual migration
If you're moving between servers running an OttoFMS version earlier than 4.18.0, or you only need to bring over a subset of data, you can migrate manually.
OttoFMS stores your API keys and webhooks in a SQLite database, which can be copied to your new server. The database is stored in the 'db.sqlite' file in the data folder of the OttoFMS application directory. Copy this file to the same location on the new server and it will be picked up by OttoFMS on startup. See File Paths for the exact directory locations on each operating system.
If you have set up offsite backups for your server or you are using any environment variables, you should also copy the contents of the 'config' directory from the old server to the new server. This should ensure that your offsite backups continue working and that your environment variables are set correctly. You will also need to copy over the offsite backup schedule to make sure that the backups continue to run. Make sure to keep the name and details of the schedule the same as OttoFMS relies on the name of the schedule to send the backups to the offsite storage.
Make sure to make the fmserver:fmsadmin user the owner of any files that you move to the new server.
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