Backup Gitlab without LFS objects

Hello Gitlab Community,

I am currently trying to backup my Gitlab instance which is fairly big. The instance takes up about 1.6 terabytes of data. Therefore, the built-in Gitlab backup feature is not an option for me, because the process just takes too long to create daily backups. At least if I backup the repositories with it. However, in the Gitlab docs it says as an alternative that I backup everything else and save the repository data at the file level. So far so good. However, I also have about 200 GB of LFS objects. During backup creation, these also take too long. Therefore my question, can I backup the LFS objects also on file level or are there any restrictions? What are these objects for anyway?

Thanks in advance.

LFS objects are large files that are not stored in the Git repository storage, e.g. audio/video files, pdfs, etc. Git Large File Storage (LFS) | GitLab

You can skip lfs from backup, following this section Back up GitLab | GitLab When needed, you can also change the storage location, GitLab Git Large File Storage (LFS) Administration | GitLab

Thanks for your fast reply. I already checked out the documentation that you mentioned. But that means I can just backup the LFS objects on a file-level basis too?

I would assume so, reading the documentation about the storage path, and possibility to skip from the regular backup command. I’d suggest testing this backup strategy with a restore though, if possible.