Backups
Postgres has two mechanisms for backups:
- Logical backups contain the raw data in a more portable format (a set of SQL statements such as
CREATE tableandINSERTs). - Physical backups are a byte for byte backup of the data on disk.
Read more about the difference between and logical and physical backups here.
For more guidance around restoring a backup, see the Restore Backups how-to guide.
Logical backups
You can capture logical backups for your databases directly using pg_dump. Note that Crunchy Bridge’s automatic daily backups are physical backups.
Physical backups
Physical backups taken using the pgBackRest package and are included with Crunchy Bridge clusters automatically at no extra charge.
For each cluster, a PostgreSQL base backup is captured each day and kept current by streaming the WAL every 60 seconds or 16MB (whichever comes first).
Manual backups
You can trigger a manual backup at anytime in the Backups tab of the dashboard, by running cb backup start <cluster-id> on the CLI, or by using the Cluster Backup API endpoint. Once completed, manual backups will show in the list alongside the automatic backups.
Backup retention
Backups are retained for a rolling 10-day period as long as your cluster is running. If you suspend a cluster, the most recent 10 days of backups will be retained along with the data on disk. If you destroy a cluster, all backups will also be destroyed after 5 days.
If you require a longer retention time, you can use the fork feature to create individual backup snapshots. Contact support if you’d like to discuss additional considerations with backups.