diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index 3d3f757..66a513c 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ RUN apt-get update && \
     rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/* /tmp/* /var/tmp/*
 
 COPY entrypoint.sh /entrypoint.sh
+COPY scripts/ /
 COPY fixtures/ /usr/share/slapd/fixtures/
 
 ENTRYPOINT ["/entrypoint.sh"]
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 4c9cbf9..45cdadb 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -64,11 +64,12 @@ State stored in this container is essential to many other services, that
 use authentication and authorization. Therefore you should think about
 backing up the LDAP database in regular intervals.
 
-**simply copying all the data from `data` MAY NOT WORK**, as there could
-be race conditions leading to database corruption during the backup.
-The recommended way is to use the included script for backing up the database
-into a compact .ldif plain text file.
+```shell
+# append database number, typically 0 for config and 1 for the main
+# database.
+$ docker exec -it ldap dump 0 > conf_dump.ldif
+$ docker exec -it ldap dump 1 > data_dump.ldif
 
-running `contrib/create-ldap-backup.sh` will create two files:
-* `conf.ldif` is a backup of the configuration.
-* `data.ldif` contains all the saved datasets.
+# .. or similary with docker-compose
+$ docker-compose exec ldap dump 1 > data_dump.ldif
+```
diff --git a/contrib/create-backup.sh b/contrib/create-backup.sh
deleted file mode 100644
index 36eda4d..0000000
--- a/contrib/create-backup.sh
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,9 +0,0 @@
-#!/bin/bash
-CONF_LOCATION=/data/slapd.d
-CONTAINER_NAME=ldap
-
-# dump configuration
-docker exec -it ldap slapcat -F $CONF_LOCATION -n 0 > conf.ldif
-
-# dump data
-docker exec -it ldap slapcat -F $CONF_LOCATION -n 1 > data.ldif
diff --git a/docker-compose.yml.example b/docker-compose.yml.example
index 165eff2..9c2daec 100644
--- a/docker-compose.yml.example
+++ b/docker-compose.yml.example
@@ -14,8 +14,8 @@ services:
         environment:
             - "ROOTPW=pass"
             - "ORGANIZATION=example"
-            - "DATADIR=/data"
-            - "CONFDIR=/conf"
+            - "CONFDIR=/etc/ldap/slapd.d"
+            - "DATADIR=/var/lib/ldap"
         volumes:
             - conf:/etc/ldap/slapd.d
             - data:/var/lib/ldap
diff --git a/entrypoint.sh b/entrypoint.sh
index 93d4872..e2501ca 100755
--- a/entrypoint.sh
+++ b/entrypoint.sh
@@ -47,6 +47,7 @@ function init_fixtures {
 				echo "$0: running $f"; . "$f"
 				;;
 			*.ldif)
+				echo "$0: applying $f"
 				sed \
 					-e "s|@SUFFIX@|${SUFFIX}|g" \
 					-e "s|@PASSWORD@|${ROOTPW}|g" \
diff --git a/scripts/dump b/scripts/dump
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..931c25f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/dump
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+conf=${CONFDIR:-/data/slapd.d}
+
+# typically, 0 is configuration, and 1 is the main database
+db_id=${1:-1} # default value is 1.
+
+if [ "${db_id}" -ge 0 && "${db_id}" -ls 10 ] ; then
+    slapcat -F ${conf} -n ${db_id}
+else
+    echo "database number is invalid" > /dev/stderr
+    exit 1
+fi
\ No newline at end of file