HOWTO: Set Up pgBackRest Backup for PostgreSQL¶

Purpose: Configure pgBackRest on a HybridOps PostgreSQL cluster, execute a baseline backup, and validate the backup configuration as part of the DR run record.

Difficulty: Intermediate

Track: Disaster Recovery Automation

Overview¶

pgBackRest is not just a backup tool in HybridOps: it is the reviewable component that proves your PostgreSQL cluster has a recoverable state. Correct stanza configuration and a clean baseline backup are prerequisites for executing a DR failover drill. This HOWTO covers the setup path.

1. pgBackRest Architecture in HybridOps¶

Primary, replica, and repository node roles.
Repository types: POSIX and S3-compatible object storage.
Integration with Patroni-managed clusters.

2. Stanza Initialisation¶

Stanza naming conventions.
pgbackrest --stanza=<name> stanza-create.
Verifying stanza metadata.

3. WAL Archiving Configuration¶

archive_mode and archive_command in postgresql.conf.
Confirming the first WAL segment is archived.
Monitoring archive lag.

4. Retention Policy¶

repo-retention-full and repo-retention-diff configuration.
Retention policy aligned with RTO/RPO requirements.
Log of expired backups.

5. Baseline Full Backup¶

pgbackrest --stanza=<name> backup --type=full.
Monitoring backup progress.
pgbackrest info output as structured run records.

6. Run-record capture¶

Storing pgBackRest info output under <runtime-root>/logs/dr/pgbackrest/.
Linking to the module run record.
Backup run-record review in the DR drill checklist.

References¶

License: MIT-0 for code, CC-BY-4.0 for documentation unless otherwise stated.