diff --git a/infrastructure/host-backup/NOTES.md b/infrastructure/host-backup/NOTES.md
index 5b9eb461..e06cf6a5 100644
--- a/infrastructure/host-backup/NOTES.md
+++ b/infrastructure/host-backup/NOTES.md
@@ -62,6 +62,13 @@ whether the directory exists. Routine journal output contains status and byte
 counts. Restricted `last-error.txt` is for local diagnosis; do not paste it into
 chat or public logs without reviewing it.
 
+The scripts atomically publish a non-sensitive success timestamp through the
+existing node exporter textfile collector. Titan-db uses the versioned
+`node-exporter-textfile.conf` systemd drop-in; titan-0b uses the cluster's
+node-exporter DaemonSet. The metric is
+`atlas_k3s_backup_last_success_timestamp_seconds`, labelled `copy="datastore"`
+or `copy="lan_replica"`. These files contain no paths, keys or database records.
+
 Run a new backup and then replicate it:
 
 ```bash
diff --git a/infrastructure/host-backup/node-exporter-textfile.conf b/infrastructure/host-backup/node-exporter-textfile.conf
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..b6be4012
--- /dev/null
+++ b/infrastructure/host-backup/node-exporter-textfile.conf
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+# infrastructure/host-backup/node-exporter-textfile.conf
+# titan-db's existing node_exporter service, with native textfile collection.
+[Service]
+ExecStart=
+ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/node_exporter --web.listen-address=:9100 --collector.systemd --collector.filesystem.ignored-mount-points=^/(sys|proc|dev|run)($|/) --collector.textfile.directory=/var/lib/node_exporter/textfile_collector
diff --git a/scripts/ops/k3s_backup_replica.sh b/scripts/ops/k3s_backup_replica.sh
index b0fea1d1..fdaff2b9 100755
--- a/scripts/ops/k3s_backup_replica.sh
+++ b/scripts/ops/k3s_backup_replica.sh
@@ -29,4 +29,10 @@ mv "$stage" "$final"
 ln -sfn "$(basename "$final")" "$root/.latest"
 mv -Tf "$root/.latest" "$root/latest"
 find "$root" -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type d -name 'snapshot-*' -mtime +7 -exec rm -rf -- {} +
+metrics=/var/lib/node_exporter/textfile_collector
+install -d -m 0755 "$metrics"
+printf 'atlas_k3s_backup_last_success_timestamp_seconds{copy="lan_replica"} %s\n' \
+  "$(date +%s)" >"$metrics/atlas_k3s_replica.prom.tmp"
+chmod 0644 "$metrics/atlas_k3s_replica.prom.tmp"
+mv "$metrics/atlas_k3s_replica.prom.tmp" "$metrics/atlas_k3s_replica.prom"
 printf 'Datastore replica complete; database and server token protected locally\n'
diff --git a/scripts/ops/k3s_datastore_backup.sh b/scripts/ops/k3s_datastore_backup.sh
index 898ef3e4..eff1af27 100755
--- a/scripts/ops/k3s_datastore_backup.sh
+++ b/scripts/ops/k3s_datastore_backup.sh
@@ -36,4 +36,10 @@ mv "$stage" "$final"
 ln -sfn "$(basename "$final")" "$root/.latest"
 mv -Tf "$root/.latest" "$root/latest"
 find "$root" -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type d -name 'snapshot-*' -mtime +7 -exec rm -rf -- {} +
+metrics=/var/lib/node_exporter/textfile_collector
+install -d -m 0755 "$metrics"
+printf 'atlas_k3s_backup_last_success_timestamp_seconds{copy="datastore"} %s\n' \
+  "$(date +%s)" >"$metrics/atlas_k3s_backup.prom.tmp"
+chmod 0644 "$metrics/atlas_k3s_backup.prom.tmp"
+mv "$metrics/atlas_k3s_backup.prom.tmp" "$metrics/atlas_k3s_backup.prom"
 printf 'Datastore backup complete: %s bytes\n' "$(stat -c %s "$final/k3s.dump")"
diff --git a/services/monitoring/grafana-alerting-config.yaml b/services/monitoring/grafana-alerting-config.yaml
index 091c4ca9..16434afc 100644
--- a/services/monitoring/grafana-alerting-config.yaml
+++ b/services/monitoring/grafana-alerting-config.yaml
@@ -1089,3 +1089,59 @@ data:
               summary: "Postmark exporter reports sustained API outage"
             labels:
               severity: warning
+
+      - orgId: 1
+        name: atlas-datastore-recovery
+        folder: Alerts
+        interval: 1m
+        rules:
+        - uid: atlas-k3s-backup-stale
+          title: K3s datastore backup or LAN copy stale
+          condition: C
+          for: 10m
+          data:
+          - refId: A
+            relativeTimeRange:
+              from: 600
+              to: 0
+            datasourceUid: atlas-vm
+            model:
+              intervalMs: 60000
+              maxDataPoints: 43200
+              expr: (max(time() - atlas_k3s_backup_last_success_timestamp_seconds{copy=~"datastore|lan_replica"}) + 1000000000 * (count(count by (copy) (atlas_k3s_backup_last_success_timestamp_seconds{copy=~"datastore|lan_replica"})) < bool 2)) or on() vector(1000000000)
+              legendFormat: backup age seconds
+              datasource:
+                type: prometheus
+                uid: atlas-vm
+          - refId: B
+            datasourceUid: __expr__
+            model:
+              expression: A
+              intervalMs: 60000
+              maxDataPoints: 43200
+              reducer: last
+              type: reduce
+          - refId: C
+            datasourceUid: __expr__
+            model:
+              expression: B
+              intervalMs: 60000
+              maxDataPoints: 43200
+              type: threshold
+              conditions:
+              - evaluator:
+                  params:
+                  - 7200
+                  type: gt
+                operator:
+                  type: and
+                reducer:
+                  type: last
+                type: query
+          noDataState: Alerting
+          execErrState: Error
+          annotations:
+            summary: K3s datastore backup or independent LAN copy is missing or older than two hours
+            description: Check atlas-k3s-backup on titan-db and atlas-k3s-replica on titan-0b. See infrastructure/host-backup/NOTES.md.
+          labels:
+            severity: critical
diff --git a/services/monitoring/helmrelease.yaml b/services/monitoring/helmrelease.yaml
index c45d513a..2a0bb367 100644
--- a/services/monitoring/helmrelease.yaml
+++ b/services/monitoring/helmrelease.yaml
@@ -51,6 +51,8 @@ spec:
     disableWait: true
   values:
     hostNetwork: false
+    extraArgs:
+      - --collector.textfile.directory=/host/root/var/lib/node_exporter/textfile_collector
     rbac:
       pspEnabled: false
     service: