# Migration Tool

{% hint style="info" %}
For using SQL dumps as safety backups, please see [Backups & Restore](/for-system-administrators/backup.md) instead. The migration tools on this page here should **not** be used for any data backups! Especially files are not part of the backup, but only referenced by URL.\
\
The process on this page is also not intended for PostgreSQL upgrades.
{% endhint %}

This page describes of the **fylr migration tool**, which is an internal part of the **fylr** binary and can be used by calling sub commands from the command line.

The migration consists of two parts: [**backup**](/for-system-administrators/migration/backup.md) and [**restore**](/for-system-administrators/migration/restore.md). A complete migration is done by loading a backup from a source instance (**easydb5** or **fylr**) using the `fylr backup` command, and later restoring it to a target instance (**fylr** only) using the `fylr restore` command.

The migration tools use the API to store JSON files with payloads. The payloads contain basetypes and records stored in a way that the content can be used as the body of POST requests to the API of the target instance.

A central element of each backup is the `manifest.json` file, which contains information about the source instance. It also contains filenames (relative paths) to datamodel and base configuration files, and most important, the list of all payloads in a specific order.

The JSON files in the backup can be used for multiple restore runs, against multiple target instances.

## Requirements

`backup` and `restore` are sub commands of `fylr`. Make sure to always use the latest **fylr** version.

For all following descriptions of commands, `fylr` refers to a local binary.


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