The {[project]} Configuration Reference details all configuration options. can be used entirely with command-line parameters but a configuration file is more practical for installations that are complex or set a lot of options. The default location for the configuration file is /etc/pgbackrest.conf. The log section defines logging-related settings.

Level for file logging.

The following log levels are supported:

• off - No logging at all (not recommended)
• error - Log only errors
• warn - Log warnings and errors
• info - Log info, warnings, and errors
• detail - Log detail, info, warnings, and errors
• debug - Log debug, detail, info, warnings, and errors
• trace - Log trace (very verbose debugging), debug, info, warnings, and errors

debug

Level for console logging.

The following log levels are supported:

• off - No logging at all (not recommended)
• error - Log only errors
• warn - Log warnings and errors
• info - Log info, warnings, and errors
• detail - Log detail, info, warnings, and errors
• debug - Log debug, detail, info, warnings, and errors
• trace - Log trace (very verbose debugging), debug, info, warnings, and errors

error

Level for stderr logging.

Specifies which log levels must will be output to stderr rather than stdout (specified by log-level-console). The timestamp and process will not be output to stderr. The following log levels are supported:

• off - No logging at all (not recommended)
• error - Log only errors
• warn - Log warnings and errors
• info - Log info, warnings, and errors
• detail - Log detail, info, warnings, and errors
• debug - Log debug, detail, info, warnings, and errors
• trace - Log trace (very verbose debugging), debug, info, warnings, and errors

error

Enable timestamp in logging.

Enables the timestamp in console and file logging. This option is disabled in special situations such as generating documentation. n The general section defines settings that are shared between multiple operations.

Archive timeout.

Set maximum time, in seconds, to wait for WAL segments to reach the archive. The timeout applies to the check command and to the backup command when waiting for WAL segments required to make the backup consistent to be archived. 30

Buffer size for file operations.

Set the buffer size used for copy, compress, and uncompress functions. A maximum of 3 buffers will be in use at a time per process. An additional maximum of 256K per process may be used for zlib buffers. 16384 - 8388608 32768

Path to ssh client executable.

Use a specific SSH client when an alternate is desired or the ssh executable is not in $PATH. /usr/bin/ssh

Use gzip file compression.

Backup files are compatible with command-line gzip tools. n

Compression level for stored files.

Sets the zlib level to be used for file compression when compress=y. 0-9 9

Compression level for network transfer when compress=n.

Sets the zlib level to be used for protocol compression when compress=n and the database cluster is not on the same host as the backup. Protocol compression is used to reduce network traffic but can be disabled by setting compress-level-network=0. When compress=y the compress-level-network setting is ignored and compress-level is used instead so that the file is only compressed once. SSH compression is always disabled. 0-9 1

Validate data page checksums.

Directs to validate all data page checksums while backing up a cluster. This option will be automatically enabled when the required C library is present and checksums are enabled on the cluster. Failures in checksum validation will not abort a backup. Rather, warnings will be emitted in the log (and to the console with default settings) and the list of invalid pages will be stored in the backup manifest. n

Database query timeout.

Sets the timeout, in seconds, for queries against the database. This includes the pg_start_backup() and pg_stop_backup() functions which can each take a substantial amount of time. Because of this the timeout should be kept high unless you know that these functions will return quickly (i.e. if you have set startfast=y and you know that the database cluster will not generate many WAL segments during the backup). 600

Path where lock files are stored.

The lock path provides a location for to create lock files to prevent conflicting operations from being run concurrently. /backup/db/lock

Path where log files are stored.

The log path provides a location for to store log files. Note that if log-level-file=none then no log path is required. /backup/db/log

Use a neutral umask.

Sets the umask to 0000 so modes in the repository are created in a sensible way. The default directory mode is 0750 and default file mode is 0640. The lock and log directories set the directory and file mode to 0770 and 0660 respectively. To use the executing user's umask instead specify neutral-umask=n in the config file or --no-neutral-umask on the command line. n

Path where WAL segments are spooled during async archiving.

When asynchronous archiving is enabled needs a local directory to store WAL segments before they are compressed and moved to the repository. Depending on the volume of WAL generated this directory could become very large so be sure to plan accordingly. The max-archive-mb option can be used to limit the amount of WAL that will be spooled locally. /backup/db/spool

Max processes to use for compress/transfer.

Each process will perform compression and transfer to make the command run faster, but don't set process-max so high that it impacts database performance. 4

Protocol timeout.

Sets the timeout, in seconds, that the master or remote process will wait for a new message to be received on the protocol layer. This prevents processes from waiting indefinitely for a message. The protocol-timeout option must be greater than the db-timeout option. 630

Create convenience symlinks in repository.

Creates the convenience link latest in the stanza directory and internal tablespace symlinks in each backup directory. The internal tablespace symlinks allow clusters to be brought up manually in-place using filesystem snapshots as long as the backup is not compressed. This option should be disabled when the repository is located on a filesystem that does not support symlinks. No functionality will be affected, but certain manual operations on the repository may be less convenient. n

Repository path where WAL segments and backups stored.

The repository is where stores backup and archives WAL segments. If you are new to backup then it will be difficult to estimate in advance how much space you'll need. The best thing to do is take some backups then record the size of different types of backups (full/incr/diff) and measure the amount of WAL generated per day. This will give you a general idea of how much space you'll need, though of course requirements will likely change over time as your database evolves. /backup/db/backrest

Sync directories in repository.

Syncs directories when writing to the repository. Not all file systems support directory syncs (e.g., NTFS) so this option allows them to be disabled. n The backup section defines settings related to backup.

Check that WAL segments are present in the archive before backup completes.

Checks that all WAL segments required to make the backup consistent are present in the WAL archive. It's a good idea to leave this as the default unless you are using another method for archiving. n

Copy WAL segments needed for consistency to the backup.

This slightly paranoid option protects against corruption or premature expiration in the WAL segment archive by storing the WAL segments directly in the backup. PITR won't be possible without the WAL segment archive and this option also consumes more space. Even though WAL segments will be restored with the backup, will ignore them if a recovery.conf file exists and instead use archive_command to fetch WAL segments. Specifying type=none when restoring will not create recovery.conf and force to use the WAL segments in pg_xlog. This will get the database cluster to a consistent state. y

exe path on the backup host.

Required only if the path to is different on the local and backup hosts. If not defined, the backup host exe path will be set the same as the local exe path. same as local /usr/lib/backrest/bin/pgbackrest

backup host configuration file.

Sets the location of the configuration file on the backup host. This is only required if the backup host configuration file is in a different location than the local configuration file. /etc/pgbackrest_backup.conf

Backup host when operating remotely via SSH.

Make sure that trusted SSH authentication is configured between the db host and the backup host. When backing up to a locally mounted network filesystem this setting is not required. backup.domain.com

Backup host user when backup-host is set.

Defines the user that will be used for operations on the backup server. Preferably this is not the postgres user but rather some other user like backrest. If runs on the backup server the postgres user can be placed in the backrest group so it has read permissions on the repository without being able to damage the contents accidentally. backrest

Backup from the standby cluster.

Enable backup from standby to reduce load on the master cluster. This option requires that both the master and standby hosts be configured. y

Hardlink files between backups.

Enable hard-linking of files in differential and incremental backups to their full backups. This gives the appearance that each backup is a full backup. Be careful, though, because modifying files that are hard-linked can affect all the backups in the set. y

Manifest save threshold during backup.

Defines how often the manifest will be saved during a backup (in bytes). Saving the manifest is important because it stores the checksums and allows the resume function to work efficiently. The actual threshold used is 1% of the backup size or manifest-save-threshold, whichever is greater. 5368709120

Allow resume of failed backup.

Defines whether the resume feature is enabled. Resume can greatly reduce the amount of time required to run a backup after a previous backup of the same type has failed. It adds complexity, however, so it may be desirable to disable in environments that do not require the feature. n

Force a checkpoint to start backup quickly.

Forces a checkpoint (by passing y to the fast parameter of pg_start_backup()) so the backup begins immediately. Otherwise the backup will start after the next regular checkpoint. This feature only works in >= 8.4. y

Stop prior failed backup on new backup.

This will only be done if an exclusive advisory lock can be acquired to demonstrate that the prior failed backup process has really stopped. This feature relies on pg_is_in_backup() so only works on >= 9.3. The setting is disabled by default because it assumes that is the only process doing exclusive online backups. It depends on an advisory lock that only sets so it may abort other processes that do exclusive online backups. Note that base_backup and pg_dump are safe to use with this setting because they do not call pg_start_backup() so are not exclusive. y The archive section defines parameters when doing async archiving. This means that the archive files will be stored locally, then a background process will pick them and move them to the backup.

Archive WAL segments asynchronously.

WAL segments will be copied to the local repo, then a process will be forked to compress the segment and transfer it to the remote repo if configured. Control will be returned to as soon as the WAL segment is copied locally. y

Limit size (in bytes) of the archive queue.

After the limit is reached, the following will happen:

1. will notify that the WAL was successfully archived, then DROP IT.
2. A warning will be output to the Postgres log.

If this occurs then the archive log stream will be interrupted and PITR will not be possible past that point. A new backup will be required to regain full restore capability. In asynchronous mode the entire queue will be dropped to prevent spurts of WAL getting through before the queue limit is exceeded again. The purpose of this feature is to prevent the log volume from filling up at which point Postgres will stop completely. Better to lose the backup than have go down. 1073741824 The restore section defines settings used for restoring backups.

Restore only specified databases.

This feature allows only selected databases to be restored. Databases not specifically included will be restored as sparse, zeroed files to save space but still allow to perform recovery. After recovery the databases that were not included will not be accessible but can be removed with the drop database command. Note that built-in databases (template0, template1, and postgres) are always restored. The {[dash]}-db-include option can be passed multiple times to specify more than one database to include. db_main

Restore all symlinks.

By default symlinked directories and files are restored as normal directories and files in $PGDATA. This is because it may not be safe to restore symlinks to their original destinations on a system other than where the original backup was performed. This option restores all the symlinks just as they were on the original system where the backup was performed. y

Modify the destination of a symlink.

Allows the destination file or path of a symlink to be changed on restore. This is useful for restoring to systems that have a different storage layout than the original system where the backup was generated. pg_xlog=/data/xlog

Set an option in recovery.conf.

See http://www.postgresql.org/docs/X.X/static/recovery-config.html for details on recovery.conf options (replace X.X with your version). This option can be used multiple times. Note: The restore_command option will be automatically generated but can be overridden with this option. Be careful about specifying your own restore_command as is designed to handle this for you. Target Recovery options (recovery_target_name, recovery_target_time, etc.) are generated automatically by and should not be set with this option. Since does not start after writing the recovery.conf file, it is always possible to edit/check recovery.conf before manually restarting. primary_conninfo=db.mydomain.com

Restore a tablespace into the specified directory.

Moves a tablespace to a new location during the restore. This is useful when tablespace locations are not the same on a replica, or an upgraded system has different mount points. Since 9.2 tablespace locations are not stored in pg_tablespace so moving tablespaces can be done with impunity. However, moving a tablespace to the data_directory is not recommended and may cause problems. For more information on moving tablespaces http://www.databasesoup.com/2013/11/moving-tablespaces.html is a good resource. ts_01=/db/ts_01

Restore all tablespaces into the specified directory.

By default tablespaces are restored into their original locations and while this behavior can be modified by with the tablespace-map open it is sometime preferable to remap all tablespaces to a new directory all at once. This is particularly useful for development or staging systems that may not have the same storage layout as the original system where the backup was generated. The path specified will be the parent path used to create all the tablespaces in the backup. /data/tablespace The expire section defines how long backups will be retained. Expiration only occurs when the number of complete backups exceeds the allowed retention. In other words, if retention-full is set to 2, then there must be 3 complete backups before the oldest will be expired. Make sure you always have enough space for retention + 1 backups.

Number of full backups to retain.

When a full backup expires, all differential and incremental backups associated with the full backup will also expire. When the option is not defined a warning will be issued. If indefinite retention is desired then set the option to the max value. 2

Number of differential backups to retain.

When a differential backup expires, all incremental backups associated with the differential backup will also expire. When not defined all differential backups will be kept until the full backups they depend on expire. 3

Backup type for WAL retention.

If set to full will keep archive logs for the number of full backups defined by retention-archive. If set to diff (differential) will keep archive logs for the number of full and differential backups defined by retention-archive, meaning if the last backup taken was a full backup, it will be counted as a differential for the purpose of retention. If set to incr (incremental) will keep archive logs for the number of full, differential, and incremental backups defined by retention-archive. It is recommended that this setting not be changed from the default which will only expire WAL in conjunction with expiring full backups. diff

Number of backups worth of continuous WAL to retain.

Note that the WAL segments required to make a backup consistent are always retained until the backup is expired regardless of how this option is configured. If this value is not set, then the archive to expire will default to the retention-full (or retention-diff) value corresponding to the retention-archive-type if set to full (or diff). This will ensure that WAL is only expired for backups that are already expired. This option must be set if retention-archive-type is set to incr. If disk space is at a premium, then this setting, in conjunction with retention-archive-type, can be used to aggressively expire WAL segments. However, doing so negates the ability to perform PITR from the backups with expired WAL and is therefore not recommended. 2 A stanza defines the backup configuration for a specific database cluster. The stanza section must define the database cluster path and host/user if the database cluster is remote. Also, any global configuration sections can be overridden to define stanza-specific settings.

exe path on the database host.

Required only if the path to is different on the local and database hosts. If not defined, the database host exe path will be set the same as the local exe path. same as local /usr/lib/backrest/bin/pgbackrest

database host configuration file.

Sets the location of the configuration file on the database host. This is only required if the database host configuration file is in a different location than the local configuration file. /etc/pgbackrest_db.conf

Cluster host for operating remotely via SSH.

Used for backups where the database cluster host is different from the backup host. db.domain.com

Cluster host logon user when db-host is set.

This user will also own the remote process and will initiate connections to . For this to work correctly the user should be the database cluster owner which is generally postgres, the default. db_owner

Cluster data directory.

This should be the same as the data_directory setting in postgresql.conf. Even though this value can be read from postgresql.conf or the database cluster it is prudent to set it in case those resources are not available during a restore or offline backup scenario. The db-path option is tested against the value reported by on every online backup so it should always be current. /data/db

Cluster port.

Port that is running on. This usually does not need to be specified as most database clusters run on the default port. 6543

Cluster unix socket path.

The unix socket directory that was specified when was started. will automatically look in the standard location for your OS so there usually no need to specify this setting unless the socket directory was explicitly modified with the unix_socket_directory setting in postgressql.conf. /var/run/postgresql The {[project]} Command Reference details all commands and options. Commands are used to execute the various functions. Here the command options are listed exhaustively, that is, each option applicable to a command is listed with that command even if it applies to one or more other commands. This includes all the options that may also configured in pgbackrest.conf.

configuration file.

Use this option to specify a different configuration file than the default. /var/lib/backrest/pgbackrest.conf

Defines a stanza.

A stanza is the configuration for a database cluster that defines where it is located, how it will be backed up, archiving options, etc. Most db servers will only have one Postgres database cluster and therefore one stanza, whereas backup servers will have a stanza for every database cluster that needs to be backed up. It is tempting to name the stanza after the primary cluster but a better name describes the databases contained in the cluster. Because the stanza name will be used for the primary and all replicas it is more appropriate to choose a name that describes the actual function of the cluster, such as app or dw, rather than the local cluster name, such as main or prod. main

Perform an online backup.

Specifying --no-online prevents from running pg_start_backup() and pg_stop_backup() on the database cluster. In order for this to work should be shut down and will generate an error if it is not. The purpose of this option is to allow offline backups. The pg_xlog directory is copied as-is and archive-check is automatically disabled for the backup. n

Backup a database cluster.

does not have a built-in scheduler so it's best to run it from cron or some other scheduling mechanism.

Backup type.

The following backup types are supported:

• full - all database cluster files will be copied and there will be no dependencies on previous backups.
• incr - incremental from the last successful backup.
• diff - like an incremental backup but always based on the last full backup.

full

Force an offline backup.

When used with --no-start-stop a backup will be run even if thinks that is running. This option should be used with extreme care as it will likely result in a bad backup. There are some scenarios where a backup might still be desirable under these conditions. For example, if a server crashes and the database cluster volume can only be mounted read-only, it would be a good idea to take a backup even if postmaster.pid is present. In this case it would be better to revert to the prior backup and replay WAL, but possibly there is a very important transaction in a WAL segment that did not get archived. y {[backrest-exe]} --stanza=db --type=full backup Run a full backup on the db stanza. --type can also be set to incr or diff for incremental or differential backups. However, if no full backup exists then a full backup will be forced even if incr or diff is requested.

Push a WAL segment to the archive.

The WAL segment may be pushed immediately to the archive or stored locally depending on the value of archive-async {[backrest-exe]} --stanza=db archive-push %p Accepts a WAL segment from and archives it in the repository defined by repo-path. %p is how specifies the location of the WAL segment to be archived.

Get a WAL segment from the archive.

WAL segments are required for restoring a cluster or maintaining a replica. {[backrest-exe]} --stanza=db archive-get %f %p Retrieves a WAL segment from the repository. This command is used in recovery.conf to restore a backup, perform PITR, or as an alternative to streaming for keeping a replica up to date. %f is how specifies the WAL segment it needs and %p is the location where it should be copied.

Check the configuration.

The check command validates that and the archive_command setting are configured correctly for archiving and backups. It detects misconfigurations, particularly in archiving, that result in incomplete backups because required WAL segments did not reach the archive. The command can be run on the database or the backup host. The command may also be run on the standby host, however, since pg_switch_xlog() cannot be performed on the standby, the command will only test the repository configuration. Note that pg_create_restore_point('pgBackRest Archive Check') and pg_switch_xlog() are called to force to archive a WAL segment. Restore points are only supported in >= 9.1 so for older versions the check command may fail if there has been no write activity since the last log rotation, therefore it is recommended that activity be generated by the user if there have been no writes since the last xlog switch before running the check command. {[backrest-exe]} --stanza=db check

Expire backups that exceed retention.

does backup rotation but is not concerned with when the backups were created. If two full backups are configured for retention, will keep two full backups no matter whether they occur two hours or two weeks apart. {[backrest-exe]} --stanza=db expire Expire (rotate) any backups that exceed the defined retention. Expiration is run automatically after every successful backup, so there is no need to run this command separately unless you have reduced retention, usually to free up some space.

Restore a database cluster.

This command is generally run manually, but there are instances where it might be automated.

Backup set to restore.

The backup set to be restored. latest will restore the latest backup, otherwise provide the name of the backup to restore. 20150131-153358F_20150131-153401I

Restore using delta.

By default the data and tablespace directories are expected to be present but empty. This option performs a delta restore using checksums. y

Force a restore.

By itself this option forces the data and tablespace paths to be completely overwritten. In combination with --delta a timestamp/size delta will be performed instead of using checksums. y

Recovery type.

The following recovery types are supported:

• default - recover to the end of the archive stream.
• immediate - recover only until the database becomes consistent. This option is only supported on >= 9.4.
• name - recover the restore point specified in --target.
• xid - recover to the transaction id specified in --target.
• time - recover to the time specified in --target.
• preserve - preserve the existing recovery.conf file.
• none - no recovery.conf file is written so will attempt to achieve consistency using WAL segments present in pg_xlog. Provide the required WAL segments or use the archive-copy setting to include them with the backup.

xid

Recovery target.

Defines the recovery target when --type is name, xid, or time. 2015-01-30 14:15:11 EST

Stop just before the recovery target is reached.

Defines whether recovery to the target would be exclusive (the default is inclusive) and is only valid when --type is time or xid. For example, using --target-exclusive would exclude the contents of transaction 1007 when --type=xid and --target=1007. See the recovery_target_inclusive option in the docs for more information. n

Action to take when recovery target is reached.

The following actions are supported:

• pause - pause when recovery target is reached.
• promote - promote and switch timeline when recovery target is reached.
• shutdown - shutdown server when recovery target is reached.

This option is only supported on >= 9.5. promote

Recover along a timeline.

See recovery_target_timeline in the docs for more information. 3 {[backrest-exe]} --stanza=db --type=name --target=release restore Restores the latest database cluster backup and then recovers to the release restore point.

Retrieve information about backups.

The info command operates on a single stanza or all stanzas. Text output is the default and gives a human-readable summary of backups for the stanza(s) requested. This format is subject to change with any release. For machine-readable output use --output=json. The JSON output contains far more information than the text output, however this feature is currently experimental so the format may change between versions.

Output format.

The following output types are supported:

• text - Human-readable summary of backup information.
• json - Exhaustive machine-readable backup information in JSON format.

json {[backrest-exe]} --stanza=db --output=json info Get information about backups in the db stanza. {[backrest-exe]} --output=json info Get information about backups for all stanzas in the repository.

Get help.

Three levels of help are provided. If no command is specified then general help will be displayed. If a command is specified then a full description of the command will be displayed along with a list of valid options. If an option is specified in addition to a command then the a full description of the option as it applies to the command will be displayed. {[backrest-exe]} help backup Get help for the backup command. {[backrest-exe]} help backup force Get help for the force option of the backup command.

Allow processes to run.

If the processes were previously stopped using the stop command then they can be started again using the start command. Note that this will not immediately start up any processes but they are allowed to run. {[backrest-exe]} --stanza=main start Allows processes to run for the main stanza.

Stop processes from running.

Does not allow any new processes to run. By default running processes will be allowed to complete successfully. Use the --force option to terminate running processes. processes will return an error if they are run after the stop command completes.

Force all processes to stop.

This option will send TERM signals to all running processes to effect a graceful but immediate shutdown. Note that this will also shutdown processes that were initiated on another system but have remotes running on the current system. For instance, if a backup was started on the backup server then running stop --force on the database server will shutdown the backup process on the backup server. y {[backrest-exe]} stop Stop new processes for all stanzas but allow any current process to complete.

Get version.

Displays installed version. {[backrest-exe]} version Get version.

Create the required stanza data.

The stanza-create command must be run on the host where the repository is located after the stanza has been configured in pgbackrest.conf.

Force stanza creation.

If the required stanza information does not exist in the repository but backups or WAL segments do exist, then this option can be used to force the stanza to be created from the existing data in the repository. This is most likely to be useful after corruption or an incomplete restore of the repository from elsewhere. n {[backrest-exe]} --stanza=db stanza-create Create the required data for the db stanza.