Are disk backups necessary when the code and database are also stored elsewhere?

Hey Anjanesh,

If your code is on GitHub and the database is hosted externally (and already backed up), you’ve already covered the most critical pieces. That said, your Droplet still holds important things like the .env file, server configuration, installed packages, and any manual changes you’ve made, like firewall rules, SSH hardening, or app-specific tweaks. These can be time-consuming to reconfigure if something goes wrong.

I’d personally recommend enabling DigitalOcean’s Droplet backups. They’re automatic, snapshot the entire Droplet, and make recovery much faster than rebuilding everything from scratch. It’s a simple and effective way to keep your environment safe with minimal overhead.

You probably don’t need the manual backups you’re currently storing on the server itself. The built-in DigitalOcean backups should be more than enough in most cases, but if you want an extra layer of safety, you can still keep a separate backup of key files like .env.

Here’s the link to the docs if you want to check it out: https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/backups/

- Bobby