Backup and Restore of H2 Databases in Spring Boot

November 05, 2025

#1

This guide shows how to back up and restore H2 databases in Spring Boot projects for development and testing purposes.

1. Add H2 Dependency

<dependency>
  <groupId>com.h2database</groupId>
  <artifactId>h2</artifactId>
</dependency>

2. Configure H2 in File Mode

Use file-based mode so data persists and can be backed up:

spring.datasource.url=jdbc:h2:file:./data/demo
spring.datasource.driver-class-name=org.h2.Driver
spring.datasource.username=sa
spring.datasource.password=
spring.jpa.hibernate.ddl-auto=update

This stores the database in ./data/demo.mv.db.

3. Backup Database

H2 provides a SQL command for backup. Run this in your code or H2 console:

BACKUP TO './backup/demo.zip';

This creates a compressed backup file of your database.

4. Restore Database

To restore, copy the backup file to your database location:

unzip demo.zip -d ./data/

Or run in H2 console:

RUNSCRIPT FROM './backup/demo.zip';

5. Automate Backup in Spring Boot

@Component
public class BackupService {
  @Autowired DataSource dataSource;

  public void backup() throws Exception {
    try (Connection conn = dataSource.getConnection();
         Statement stmt = conn.createStatement()) {
      stmt.execute("BACKUP TO './backup/auto_demo.zip'");
    }
  }
}