How to manage the PostgreSQL backups

Intended audience

sysadm staff members

The archive’s postgresql is backed up every week by barman.

The service is running on banco

List the servers with backups

root@banco:~# sudo -u barman barman list-server
swh-10 - Software Heritage Database (inactive)
swh-11 - Software Heritage Database (inactive)
swh-12 - Software Heritage Database

List the backups of a server

root@banco:~# sudo -u barman barman list-backup swh-12
swh-12 20220207T153405 - STARTED
swh-12 20220129T003102 - Mon Jan 31 11:09:42 2022 - Size: 17.3 TiB - WAL Size: 425.5 GiB
swh-12 20220122T003103 - Mon Jan 24 19:41:52 2022 - Size: 17.0 TiB - WAL Size: 608.4 GiB

Manually delete a backup

root@banco:~# sudo -u barman barman delete swh-12 20220115T003103
Deleting backup 20220115T003103 for server swh-12
Delete associated WAL segments:
    00000001000266820000004E
    00000001000266820000004F
    000000010002668200000050
...
Deleted backup 20220115T003103 (start time: Mon Feb  7 15:24:00 2022, elapsed time: 6 minutes, 56 seconds)

Manually start a backup

A backup can take several days to complete, so don’t forget to launch it in a tmux or equivalent.

root@banco:~# sudo -u barman barman backup swh-12
Starting backup using rsync-concurrent method for server swh-12 in /srv/barman/swh-12/base/20220207T153405
Backup start at LSN: 26F60/E5916DD0 (0000000100026F60000000E5, 00916DD0)
Starting backup copy via rsync/SSH for 20220207T153405
...

Check the progress:

root@banco:~# sudo -u barman barman list-backup swh-12
swh-12 20220207T153405 - STARTED
swh-12 20220129T003102 - Mon Jan 31 11:09:42 2022 - Size: 17.3 TiB - WAL Size: 426.1 GiB
swh-12 20220122T003103 - Mon Jan 24 19:41:52 2022 - Size: 17.0 TiB - WAL Size: 608.4 GiB