= pg_rman(1) = == NAME == pg_rman - Backup and recovery manager for PostgreSQL == SYNOPSIS == pg_rman [ OPTIONS ] { init | backup | restore | show [ DATE | timeline ] | validate [ DATE ] | delete DATE } DATE is the start time of the target backup in ISO-format: (YYYY-MM-DD HH:MI:SS). Prefix match is used to compare DATE and backup files. == DESCRIPTION == pg_rman is a utility program to backup and restore PostgreSQL database. It takes a physical online backup of whole database cluster, archive WALs, and server logs. It proposes the following features: - Backup while database runs including tablespaces with just one command - Recovery from backup with just one command, with customized targets to facilitate the use of PITR. - Support for full, incremental and archive backup - Compression of backup files - Management of backups with integrated catalog == COMMANDS == pg_rman supports the following commands. See also *OPTIONS* for more details. *init*:: Initialize a backup catalog. *backup*:: Take an online backup. *restore*:: Perform restore. *show*:: Show backup history. The timeline option shows timeline of the backup and the parent's timeline for each backup. *validate*:: Validate backup files. *delete*:: Delete backup files. === INITIALIZATION === First, you need to create "a backup catalog" to store backup files and their metadata. It is recommended to setup archive_mode and archive_command in postgresql.conf before initializing the backup catalog. If the variables are initialized, pg_rman can adjust the config file to the setting. In this case, you have to specify the database cluster path for PostgreSQL. Please specify it in PGDATA environmental variable or -D/--pgdata option. $ pg_rman init -B /path/to/backup/ === BACKUP === Backup target can be one of the following types also serverlogs can be added): - Full backup, backup a whole database cluster. - Incremental backup, backup only files or pages modified after the last verified backup. - Archive WAL backup, Backup only archive WAL files. It is recommended to verify backup files as soon as possible after backup. Unverified backup cannot be used in restore and in incremental backup. === RESTORE === PostgreSQL server should be stopped before performing a restore. If database cluster still exists, restore command will save unarchived transaction log and delete all database files. You can retry recovery until a new backup is taken. After restoring files, pg_rman creates recovery.conf in $PGDATA. The conf file contains parameters for recovery. It is as well possible to modify the file manually. It is recommended to take a full backup as soon as possible after recovery has succeeded. If "--recovery-target-timeline" is not specifed, the last checkpoint's TimeLineID in control file ($PGDATA/global/pg_control) will be the restore target. If pg_control is not present, TimeLineID in the full backup used by the restore will be a restore target. == EXAMPLES == To reduce the number of command line arguments, you can set BACKUP_PATH, an environment variable, to the absolute path of the backup catalog and write default configuration into ${BACKUP_PATH}/pg_rman.ini. $ cat $BACKUP_PATH/pg_rman.ini ARCLOG_PATH = /home/postgres/arclog SRVLOG_PATH = /home/postgres/pgdata/pg_log BACKUP_MODE = F COMPRESS_DATA = YES KEEP_ARCLOG_FILES = 10 KEEP_ARCLOG_DAYS = 10 KEEP_DATA_GENERATIONS = 3 KEEP_DATA_DAYS = 120 KEEP_SRVLOG_FILES = 10 KEEP_SRVLOG_DAYS = 10 === TAKE A BACKUP === This example takes a full backup of the whole database with server logs. Then, it validates all unvalidated backups. $ pg_rman backup --backup-mode=full --with-serverlog $ pg_rman validate === RESTORE FROM A BACKUP === Here are some commands to restore from a backup: $ pg_ctl stop -m immediate $ pg_rman restore $ pg_ctl start === SHOW A BACKUP === $ pg_rman show ================================================================================================== Start Mode Current TLI Parent TLI Time Data WAL Log Backup Status ================================================================================================== 2013-12-25 03:02:31 INCR 1 0 0m 203kB 67MB ---- 67MB DONE 2013-12-25 03:02:31 INCR 1 0 0m 0B ---- ---- 0B ERROR 2013-12-25 03:02:25 FULL 1 0 0m 33MB 33MB ---- 64MB OK The fields are: * Start: start time of backup * Mode: Mode of backup: FULL (full), INCR (incremental) or ARCH (archive) * Current TLI: current timeline of backup * Parent TLI: parent timeline of backup * Time: total time necessary to take this backup * Data: size of data files * WAL: size of read WAL archive files * Log: size of read server log files * Backup: size of backup (= written size) * Status: status of backup. Possible values are: - OK : backup is done and validated. - DONE : backup is done, but not validated yet. - RUNNING : backup is running - DELETING : backup is being deleted. - DELETED : backup has been deleted. - ERROR : backup is unavailable because some errors occur during backup. - CORRUPT : backup is unavailable because it is broken. When a date is specified, more details about a backup is retrieved: $ pg_rman show '2011-11-27 19:15:45' # configuration BACKUP_MODE=FULL WITH_SERVERLOG=false COMPRESS_DATA=false # result TIMELINEID=1 START_LSN=0/08000020 STOP_LSN=0/080000a0 START_TIME='2011-11-27 19:15:45' END_TIME='2011-11-27 19:19:02' RECOVERY_XID=1759 RECOVERY_TIME='2011-11-27 19:15:53' DATA_BYTES=25420184 ARCLOG_BYTES=32218912 BACKUP_BYTES=242919520 BLOCK_SIZE=8192 XLOG_BLOCK_SIZE=8192 STATUS=OK You can check the "RECOVERY_XID" and "RECOVERY_TIME" which are used for restore option "--recovery-target-xid", "--recovery-target-time". The delete command deletes backup files not required by recovery after the specified date. == OPTIONS == pg_rman accepts the following command line parameters. Some of them can be also specified as environment variables. See also *PARAMETERS* for the details. === COMMON OPTIONS === As a general rule, paths for data location need to be specified as absolute paths; relative paths are not allowed. *-D* _PATH_ / *--pgdata*=_PATH_:: The absolute path of database cluster. Required on backup and restore. *-A* _PATH_ / *--arclog-path*=_PATH_:: The absolute path of archive WAL directory. Required on backup and restore. *-S* _PATH_ / *--srvlog-path*=_PATH_:: The absolute path of server log directory. Required on backup with server logs and restore. *-B* _PATH_ / *--backup-path*=_PATH_:: The absolute path of backup catalog. This option is mandatory. *-c* / *--check*:: If specifed, pg_rman doesn't perform actual jobs but only checks parameters and required resources. The option is typically used with --verbose option to verify the operation. *-v* / *--verbose*:: If specified, pg_rman works in verbose mode. === BACKUP OPTIONS === *-b* _BACKUPMODE_ / *--backup-mode*=_BACKUPMODE_:: Specify backup target files. Available options are: "full", "incremental" and "archive". Abbreviated forms (prefix match) are also available. For example, -b f means "full" backup. *-s* / *--with-serverlog*:: Backup server log files if specified. *-Z* / *--compress-data*:: Compress backup files with zlib if specified. *-C* / *--smooth-checkpoint*:: Checkpoint is performed on every backups. If the option is specified, do smooth checkpoint then. See also the second argument for pg_start_backup(). *--keep-data-generations*=_NUMBER_ / *--keep-data-days*=_DAYS_:: Specify how long backuped data files will be kept. --keep-data-generations means number of backup generations. --keep-data-days means days to be kept. Only files exceeded one of those settings are deleted. *--keep-arclog-files*=_NUMBER_ / *--keep-arclog-days*=_DAYS_:: Specify how long backuped archive WAL files will be kept. --keep-arclog-files means number of backup files. --keep-arclog-days means days to be kept. When backup is run, only files exceeded one of those settings are deleted from archive storage. *--keep-srvlog-files*=_NUMBER_ / *--keep-srvlog-days*=_DAYS_:: Specify how long backuped serverlog files will be kept. --keep-srvlog-files means number of backup files. --keep-srvlog-days means days to be kept. When backup is run, only files exceeded one of those settings are deleted from server log directory (log_directory). This option works when you specify --with-serverlog and --srvlog-path options in backup command. === RESTORE OPTIONS === The parameters whose name start are started with --recovery refer to the same parameters as the ones in recovery.confin recovery.conf. *--recovery-target-timeline*=_TIMELINE_:: Specifies recovering into a particular timeline. If not specified, the current timeline is used. *--recovery-target-time*=_TIMESTAMP_:: This parameter specifies the timestamp up to which recovery will proceed. *--recovery-target-xid*=_XID:: This parameter specifies the transaction ID up to which recovery will proceed. *--recovery-target-inclusive*:: Specifies whether server pauses when recovery target is reached. *--hard-copy*:: Archived WAL files are copied to archive WAL storage area. If you do not specify --hard-copy, pg_rman makes symlink to archive WAL where are in the backup catalog directory. === CATALOG OPTIONS === *-a* / *--show-all*:: Show all existing backups, including the deleted ones. === CONNECTION OPTIONS === Parameters to connect PostgreSQL server. *-d* _DBNAME_ / *--dbname*=_DBNAME_:: The database name to execute pg_start_backup() and pg_stop_backup(). *-h* _HOSTNAME_ / *--host*=_HOSTNAME_:: Specifies the host name of the machine on which the server is running. If the value begins with a slash, it is used as the directory for the Unix domain socket. *-p* _PORT_ / *--port*=_PORT_:: Specifies the TCP port or local Unix domain socket file extension on which the server is listening for connections. *-U* _USERNAME_ / *--username*=_USERNAME_:: User name to connect as. *-w* / *--no-password*:: Never issue a password prompt. If the server requires password authentication and a password is not available by other means such as a .pgpass file, the connection attempt will fail. This option can be useful in batch jobs and scripts where no user is present to enter a password. *-W* / *--password*:: Force pg_rman to prompt for a password before connecting to a database. This option is never essential, since pg_rman will automatically prompt for a password if the server demands password authentication. However, pg_rman will waste a connection attempt in order to find out if the server wants a password. In some cases it is worth typing -W to avoid the extra connection attempt. === GLOBAL OPTIONS === *--help*:: Print help, then exit. *-V* / *--version*:: Print version information, then exit. *-!* / *--debug*:: Show debug information. == PARAMETERS == Some of parameters can be specified as command line arguments, environment variables or in configuration file as follows: Short Long Env File -h --host PGHOST No -p --port PGPORT No -d --dbname PGDATABASE No -U --username PGUSER No PGPASSWORD No -w --password No -W --no-password No -D --pgdata PGDATA Yes -B --backup-path BACKUP_PATH Yes -A --arclog-path ARCLOG_PATH Yes -S --srvlog-path SRVLOG_PATH Yes -b --backup-mode BACKUP_MODE Yes -s --with-serverlog WITH_SERVERLOG Yes -Z --compress-data COMPRESS_DATA Yes -C --smooth-checkpoint SMOOTH_CHECKPOINT Yes --keep-data-generations KEEP_DATA_GENERATIONS Yes --keep-data-days KEEP_DATA_DAYS Yes --keep-srvlog-files KEEP_SRVLOG_FILES Yes --keep-srvlog-days KEEP_SRVLOG_DAYS Yes --keep-arclog-files KEEP_ARCLOG_FILES Yes --keep-arclog-days KEEP_ARCLOG_DAYS Yes --recovery-target-timeline RECOVERY_TARGET_TIMELINE Yes --recovery-target-xid RECOVERY_TARGET_XID Yes --recovery-target-time RECOVERY_TARGET_TIME Yes --recovery-target-inclusive RECOVERY_TARGET_INCLUSIVE Yes --hard-copy HARD_COPY Yes Variable names in configuration file are the same as long names or names of environment variables. The password can not be specified in command line and configuration file for security reason. This utility, like most other PostgreSQL utilities, also uses the environment variables supported by libpq (see Environment Variables) == RESTRICTIONS == pg_rman has the following restrictions. - Requires to read database cluster directory and write backup catalog directory. It is usually necessary to mount the disk where backup catalog is placed with NFS or related from database server. - Major versions of pg_rman and server should match. - Block sizes of pg_rman and server should match. - If there are some unreadable files/directories in data folder of server WAL directory or archived WAL directory, the backup or restore will fail depending on the backup mode selected. - Incremental backup is not able to take necessary files after a database creation, so take a full backup once a new database is created. == DETAILS == === RECOVERY TO POINT-IN-TIME === pg_rman can recover to point-in-time if timeline, transaction ID, or timestamp is specified in recovery.conf. xlogdump is a contrib module of PostgreSQL core that allows checking in the content of WAL files and determine when to recover. This might help. === CONFIGURATION FILE === Setting parameters in configuration file is done as "name=value". Quotes are required if the value contains whitespaces. Comments should start with "#" and are automatically ignored. Whitespaces and tabs are ignored excluding values. === EXIT CODE === pg_rman returns exit codes for each error status. Code Name Description 0 SUCCESS Operation succeeded. 1 HELP Print help, then exit 2 ERROR Generic error 3 FATAL Exit because of repeated errors 4 PANIC Unknown critical condition 10 ERROR_SYSTEM I/O or system error 11 ERROR_NOMEM Out of memory 12 ERROR_ARGS Invalid input parameters 13 ERROR_INTERRUPTED Interrupted by user (Ctrl+C etc.) 14 ERROR_PG_COMMAND SQL error 15 ERROR_PG_CONNECT Cannot connect to PostgreSQL server 20 ERROR_ARCHIVE_FAILED Cannot archive WAL files 21 ERROR_NO_BACKUP Backup file not found 22 ERROR_CORRUPTED Backup file is broken 23 ERROR_ALREADY_RUNNING Cannot start because another pg_rman is running 24 ERROR_PG_INCOMPATIBLE Version conflicted with server 25 ERROR_PG_RUNNING Error due to server running 26 ERROR_PID_BROKEN postmaster.pid is broken == AUTHOR == pg_rman was originally written by NTT, mainly Itagaki Takahiro, and maintained in some way by Michael Paquier. Please report bug reports at .