pgbackrest/doc/xml/faq.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE doc SYSTEM "doc.dtd">
<doc title="{[project]}" subtitle="Frequently Asked Questions" toc="y">
    <description>{[project]} Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ).</description>

    <section id="introduction">
        <title>Introduction</title>

        <p>Frequently Asked Questions are intended to provide details for specific questions that may or may not be covered in the User Guide, Configuration, or Command reference. If you are unable to find details for your specific issue here, remember that the <backrest/> <link url="https://github.com/pgbackrest/pgbackrest/issues">Issues List in GitHub</link> is also a valuable resource.</p>
    </section>

    <section id="timeout">
        <title>What if I get the <quote>could not find WAL segment</quote> error?</title>

        <p>The cause of this error can be a result of many different issues, some of which may be:</p>
        <list>
            <list-item>misconfigured archive_command</list-item>
            <list-item>misconfigured <backrest/> configuration files</list-item>
            <list-item>network or permissions issue</list-item>
            <list-item>third party product (e.g. S3, Swift or Minio) configuration issue</list-item>
            <list-item>large amount of WAL queueing to be archived</list-item>
        </list>

        <p>It is advisable to:</p>
        <list>
            <list-item>check the archive_command in <postgres/></list-item>
            <list-item>check the <backrest/> configuration settings on each host (e.g. pg* settings are set on the repository host and repo* settings on the pg host)</list-item>
            <list-item>run the <cmd>check</cmd> command with <br-setting>{[dash]}-archive-timeout</br-setting> set to a higher value than in the <backrest/> configuration file (or default) to see if the WAL queue needs more time to clear. If the system is generating a lot of WAL, then consider configuring <link url="https://pgbackrest.org/user-guide.html#async-archiving">asyncronous archiving</link></list-item>
        </list>
    </section>

    <section id="manual-expire">
        <title>How do I manually purge a backup set?</title>

        <p>Backup sets in the middle cannot be expired, but it is possible to expire the oldest backup sets by running the <cmd>expire</cmd> command with retention. For example, the following command will keep only the last two full backups, purging any prior full backups including their associated incremental/differential backups and archive:</p>

        <code-block>pgbackrest --stanza=xxx --repo1-retention-full=2 expire</code-block>

        <p>Using the <br-setting>{[dash]}-repo1-retention-full</br-setting> option on the command-  line simply overrides the setting in the configuration file for that one execution of the command. See the <link url='https://pgbackrest.org/user-guide.html#retention'>Retention</link> section in the User Guide for more information on retention.</p>
    </section>

    <section id="optimize-config">
        <title>How can I configure options independently for each command?</title>

        <p><backrest/> has the ability to set options independently in the configuration file for each command. <link url="https://pgbackrest.org/user-guide.html#quickstart/configure-stanza">Configure Cluster Stanza</link> details this feature as well as option precedence.</p>
        <p>For example, the <br-option>process-max</br-option> option can be optimized for each command:</p>

        <code-block>
[global]
# used where not overridden
process-max=2

[global:backup]
# more cores for backup
process-max=4

[global:restore]
# all the cores for restore
process-max=8

[global:archive-push]
# more cores for archive-push
process-max=3

[global:archive-get]
# fewer cores for archive-get
process-max=1
        </code-block>
    </section>

    <section id="s3-bucket">
        <title>Can I use dots (periods) in my S3 bucket name?</title>

        <p><proper>RFC-2818</proper> does not allow wildcards to match on a dot (.) so s3 bucket names must not contain dots. If there are dots in the S3 bucket name then an error such as <quote>unable to find hostname 'my.backup.bucket.s3.amazonaws.com' in certificate common name or subject alternative names</quote> will occur.</p>
    </section>

    <section id="old-package">
        <title>Where can I find packages for older versions of <backrest/>?</title>

        <p>The <link url="https://apt.postgresql.org">apt.postgresql.org</link> repository maintains an <link url="https://atalia.postgresql.org/morgue/p/pgbackrest">archive of older versions</link>.  Debian also maintains <link url="https://snapshot.debian.org/binary/pgbackrest/">snapshots</link> of all test builds.</p>
    </section>

    <!-- <section id="different-server">
        <title>How to restore a backup to a different server (for example, a production backup to a development server)?</title>

        <p>It is often desireable to restore the latest backup from a production server to a development server. In principal, the instructions are the same as in <link url="https://pgbackrest.org/user-guide.html#replication/hot-standby">setting up a hot standby</link> with a few exceptions.</p>

        <p>NEED TO ELABORATE HERE:  Need an example of the restore command - what settings are different? Would they be {[dash]}-target, {[dash]}-target-action=promote, {[dash]}-type=immediate on the command-line? What about in the POSTGRES (e.g. hot_standby = on / wal_level = hot_standby - these would be different, no?) and PGBACKREST (e.g. would recovery-option=standby_mode=on still be set?) config files</p>
    </section>

    <section id="minio">
        <title>Setting up Minio for pgBackRest</title>

        <p>Setting up Minio for pgBackRest https://github.com/pgbackrest/pgbackrest/issues/645/</p>
    </section>

    <section id="patroni">
        <title>Patroni</title>

        <p>Patroni: https://github.com/pgbackrest/pgbackrest/issues/702</p>
    </section>

    <section id="SOMETHING">
        <title>SOMETHING</title>

        <p>Issue 610 - has come up a couple times, so distill it and point to this as a resource  https://github.com/pgbackrest/pgbackrest/issues/610</p>
    </section>
-->
</doc>