title: Keycloak backup operation
body: <p>I'm reading the documentation from Keycloak for the <a href="https://keycloak.gitbooks.io/server-adminstration-guide/content/topics/export-import.html#" rel="noreferrer">export operation</a> in order to setup a backup operation (e.g. via a cron job) and what it says is that export is happending during server startup:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>Export and import is triggered at server boot time and its parameters
    are passed in via Java system properties. It is important to note that
    because import and export happens at server startup, no other actions
    should be taken on the server or the database while this happens.</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>While it has a point, that no other operation is happening during the export operation I was wondering what is the <em>best practice</em> to keep backups of your existing keycloak data? Should the cron job for instance reboot the keycloak server every one per Week to keep the backup, or should I consider a backup operation on the database side (RDBMS)?</p>