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Stack Discovery
Automatically discover every backupable resource across your infrastructure.
Stack discovery connects to your server or infrastructure platform and identifies every resource that should be backed up — databases, files, volumes, containers, configurations — so you never have to configure each one by hand. Whether you run a VPS with multiple WordPress sites, a Kubernetes cluster, or a managed cloud service like Supabase, SimpleBackups finds what needs to be backed up and lets you protect it in a single step.
What is a Stack
A Stack is a connected infrastructure environment that SimpleBackups scans automatically to find everything that should be backed up. Instead of creating individual backups one by one, you connect your server or platform once and SimpleBackups lists every database, file, volume, and configuration it detects. Each discovered resource is shown with its type, name, and status, so you can decide what to protect without guessing what exists.
Think of it as connect once, back up everything.
Why use Stacks
- No manual setup per resource — discovery happens automatically
- Nothing falls through the cracks — new databases or volumes added to your infrastructure are picked up on the next discovery run
- Consistent settings across resources — one schedule, one storage destination, applied to everything in the Stack
- Centralized view — see every backup for a given environment in one place
Supported environments
Each platform has its own discovery algorithm tailored to the resources it exposes. The setup flow and available discovery settings are documented on each Stack's dedicated page.
| Provider | What gets discovered | Setup guide |
|---|---|---|
| VPS / Linux server | MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis databases · Web project files · Docker containers and volumes · Git repositories · Home directories · Custom paths | VPS |
| Kubernetes | Databases running in pods · Persistent Volume Claims (PVCs) · ConfigMaps and Secrets · Namespace workload configs · Helm releases | Kubernetes |
| Supabase | PostgreSQL database · Storage buckets · Edge Functions · Auth and PostgREST configuration · Secrets | Supabase |
How it works
The video below walks through the full flow: connecting a Stack to a server hosting multiple WordPress websites, discovering the available resources, configuring what gets scanned, and creating backups from the results.
At a high level, every Stack follows the same lifecycle:
- Connect — add a Stack by selecting your environment type and linking a server or providing OAuth credentials
- Discover — SimpleBackups connects to your environment and scans it for backupable resources
- Review — you see a list of everything found, grouped by resource type
- Activate — choose which resources to back up, confirm the schedule and storage destination, and SimpleBackups starts protecting them automatically
- Stay up to date — discovery runs on a schedule so newly added resources are picked up without manual intervention
For provider-specific steps and settings, open the VPS, Kubernetes, or Supabase guide.
Automated discovery
Automated discovery runs on a schedule so you never miss a new resource. When you enable it, SimpleBackups periodically re-scans your infrastructure and compares the results to the previous discovery. If something new appears — a new Supabase bucket, an additional website on your VPS, a new service in your Kubernetes cluster — you receive an email notification.
From that notification, you can create a backup for the newly detected resource in a single click. Your backup coverage stays in sync with your infrastructure as it evolves, without you having to remember to re-run discovery manually.
From discovery to backups
After discovery, you choose which resources to protect. SimpleBackups creates individual backup jobs for each selected resource and groups them into a full backup bundle. This gives you complete coverage of your environment without configuring each backup one at a time.
If new resources appear later, you can re-run discovery and add them to an existing bundle or create a new one.
Managing a Stack
Once a Stack is running, most day-to-day operations happen from the Stack detail page under Stacks. Common tasks include the following.
Pick up newly added resources. Click Discover Resources at any time to re-scan your environment. Existing backups keep running untouched; new resources appear in the list for you to enable.
Pause or remove a specific backup. Every backup enabled through discovery is a regular SimpleBackups job. Pause or delete it from the Stack's resource list without removing it from discovery — it stays available for re-enabling later.
Reconfigure discovery. Open the Stack and click Edit to change what gets scanned — toggle resource types on or off, adjust namespaces or custom paths, or turn automated discovery on or off. Save and re-run discovery to apply the new filters.
Check the Stack status. The status indicator on each Stack tells you what happened on the most recent discovery run.
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Active | Discovery has run successfully and backups are enabled |
| Discovering | Discovery is currently running |
| Error | Last discovery attempt failed — open the Stack to read the error message |
| Disabled | Discovery is turned off |