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Top Backup Tools for PostgreSQL

Viorel Tabara

Published:

PostgreSQL has the reputation of being rock solid from its beginnings, and over the years has accumulated a set of impressive features. However the peace of mind that your on-disk data is ACID compliant — if not complemented by an equivalent well thought backup strategy — can be easily shattered.

Backup Types

Before diving into the available tools, let’s look at the available PostgreSQL backup types and what their characteristics are:

SQL dumps (or logical)

  • Does not block readers or writers.
  • Geared towards small sets of data because of the negative impact on system load and the long time required for both backup and restore operations. The performance may be increased with the –no-sync flag, but refer to the man page for the risks associated with disabling the wait for writes.
  • A post-restore ANALYZE is required in order to optimize the statistics.
  • Global objects such as roles and tablespaces can only be backed up using pg_dumpall utility. Note that tablespace directories must be manually created prior to starting the restore.
  • Supports parallelism at the expense of increased system load. Read man pg_dump for its caveats and special requirements e.g. synchronized snapshots.
  • Dumps can be loaded in newer versions of PostgreSQL, or even another machine architecture, however they are not guaranteed to be backwards compatible between major versions so some manual editing of the dump file may be required.

Filesystem (or physical)

  • Requires the database to be shut down.
  • Faster than logical backups.
  • Includes cluster data.
  • Can only be restored on the same major version of PostgreSQL.

Continuous archiving (or Point In Time Recovery or PITR)

  • Suitable for very large databases where logical or physical backups would take too long.
  • Some directories inside the data directory can be excluded to speed up the process.

Snapshots

  • Requires operating system support — for example LVM works quite well which is also confirmed by NetBackup for PostgreSQL Agent.
  • Suitable for applications where both data directory and the database must be in sync e.g. LAMP applications, provided that the two snapshots are synchronized.
  • Not recommended when the database files are stored across multiple filesystems (must snapshot all filesystems simultaneously).

Cloud

All cloud providers implement backups in their PostgreSQL offering. Logical backups can be performed as usual, while physical backups and PITR are available through the cloud service offerings since access to the data store is not available (see for example Amazon Aurora for PostgreSQL). Therefore, backing up PostgreSQL in the cloud will need to be a topic for another blog.

Agent base

  • Requires an agent installed on targets.
  • Can do block-level backups e.g. COMMVAULT (installation supported on Windows only).

Features

While PostgreSQL provides out of the box the tools required to perform logical, physical, and PITR backups, specialized backup applications rely on the native PostgreSQL and operating system tools to fill the need of implementing a backup strategy that addresses the following points:

  • automation
  • frequency
  • retention period
  • integrity
  • ease of use

Additionally, PostgreSQL backup tools attempt to provide features common to generic backup tools such as:

  • incremental backups for saving storage space
  • backup catalogs
  • ability to store backups on premise or in the cloud
  • alerting and notification
  • comprehensive reporting
  • access control
  • encryption
  • graphical interface and dashboards
  • backups of remote hosts
  • adaptive throughput in order to minimize load on the targets
  • handling multiple hosts in parallel
  • backup orchestration e.g. jobs chaining
  • REST APIs

Lab Setup

For this exercise I’ve setup a command-and-control host that where I’ll be installing the backup tools, that also runs two PostgreSQL instances — 9.6 and 10 — installed from PGDG repositories:

[root@cc ~]# ps -o user,pid,ppid,args --forest -U postgres
USER       PID  PPID COMMAND
postgres  4535     1 /usr/pgsql-10/bin/postmaster -D /var/lib/pgsql/10/data/
postgres  4538  4535  _ postgres: logger process
postgres  4540  4535  _ postgres: checkpointer process
postgres  4541  4535  _ postgres: writer process
postgres  4542  4535  _ postgres: wal writer process
postgres  4543  4535  _ postgres: autovacuum launcher process
postgres  4544  4535  _ postgres: stats collector process
postgres  4545  4535  _ postgres: bgworker: logical replication launcher
postgres  4481     1 /usr/pgsql-9.6/bin/postmaster -D /var/lib/pgsql/9.6/data/
postgres  4483  4481  _ postgres: logger process
postgres  4485  4481  _ postgres: checkpointer process
postgres  4486  4481  _ postgres: writer process
postgres  4487  4481  _ postgres: wal writer process
postgres  4488  4481  _ postgres: autovacuum launcher process
postgres  4489  4481  _ postgres: stats collector process

[root@cc ~]# netstat -npeelt | grep :543
tcp   0  0  127.0.0.1:5432  0.0.0.0:*  LISTEN  26  79972  4481/postmaster
tcp   0  0  127.0.0.1:5433  0.0.0.0:*  LISTEN  26  81801  4535/postmaster
tcp6  0  0  ::1:5432        :::*       LISTEN  26  79971  4481/postmaster
tcp6  0  0  ::1:5433        :::*       LISTEN  26  81800  4535/postmaster

I’ve also setup two remote PostgreSQL instances running the same versions 9.6 and respectively 10:

[root@db-1 ~]# ps -o user,pid,ppid,args --forest -U postgres
USER       PID  PPID COMMAND
postgres 10972     1 /usr/pgsql-9.6/bin/postmaster -D /var/lib/pgsql/9.6/data/
postgres 10975 10972  _ postgres: logger process
postgres 10977 10972  _ postgres: checkpointer process
postgres 10978 10972  _ postgres: writer process
postgres 10979 10972  _ postgres: wal writer process
postgres 10980 10972  _ postgres: autovacuum launcher process
postgres 10981 10972  _ postgres: stats collector process

[root@db-1 ~]# netstat -npeelt | grep :5432
tcp   0  0  0.0.0.0:5432  0.0.0.0:*  LISTEN  26  34864  10972/postmaster
tcp6  0  0  :::5432       :::*       LISTEN  26  34865  10972/postmaster


[root@db-2 ~]# ps -o user,pid,ppid,args --forest -U postgres
USER       PID  PPID COMMAND
postgres 10829     1 /usr/pgsql-10/bin/postmaster -D /var/lib/pgsql/10/data/
postgres 10831 10829  _ postgres: logger process
postgres 10833 10829  _ postgres: checkpointer process
postgres 10834 10829  _ postgres: writer process
postgres 10835 10829  _ postgres: wal writer process
postgres 10836 10829  _ postgres: autovacuum launcher process
postgres 10837 10829  _ postgres: stats collector process
postgres 10838 10829  _ postgres: bgworker: logical replication launcher

[root@db-2 ~]# netstat -npeelt | grep :5432
tcp   0  0  0.0.0.0:5432  0.0.0.0:*  LISTEN  26  34242  10829/postmaster
tcp6  0  0  :::5432       :::*       LISTEN  26  34243  10829/postmaster

Next, use pgbench to create a data set:

pgbench=# dt+
                          List of relations
 Schema |       Name       | Type  |  Owner   |  Size   | Description
--------+------------------+-------+----------+---------+-------------
 public | pgbench_accounts | table | postgres | 128 MB  |
 public | pgbench_branches | table | postgres | 40 kB   |
 public | pgbench_history  | table | postgres | 0 bytes |
 public | pgbench_tellers  | table | postgres | 40 kB   |
(4 rows)

Tools

A list of common backup tools can be found in the PostgreSQL Wiki — Backup section. I’ve augmented the list with products I’ve come across over the years and from a recent Internet search.

Amanda

Amanda is agent based, open source, and supports PostgreSQL out of the box via the ampgsql API. As of this writing, the version 3.5.1 does not support tablespaces (see man ampgsql).

Zmanda provides an enterprise version which is also open source, however not directly available for download as a trial.

Amanda requires a dedicated backup host as the server and client packages exclude each other:

[root@cc ~]# rpm -qp --conflicts ./amanda-backup_client-3.5.1-1.rhel7.x86_64.rpm
amanda-backup_server
[root@cc ~]# rpm -qp --conflicts ./amanda-backup_server-3.5.1-1.rhel7.x86_64.rpm
amanda-backup_client

Follow the basic configuration guide to setup the server and client then configure the PostgreSQL API.

Here’s a git diff from my lab:

  • Server:
    • increase the server backup space: 
      --- a/etc/amanda/omiday/amanda.conf
				+++ b/etc/amanda/omiday/amanda.conf
				@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ amrecover_changer "changer"

				tapetype "TEST-TAPE"
				define tapetype TEST-TAPE {
				1.  length 100 mbytes
				2.  length 500 mbytes
					filemark 4 kbytes
				}
      • define the PostgreSQL target (and disable sample backup): 
        --- a/etc/amanda/omiday/disklist
+++ b/etc/amanda/omiday/disklist
@@ -1,3 +1,2 @@
-localhost /etc simple-gnutar-local
+#localhost /etc simple-gnutar-local
+10.1.9.243 /var/lib/pgsql/9.6/data dt_ampgsql
  • Client:
    • config: 
      --- /dev/null
+++ b/etc/amanda/omiday/amanda-client.conf
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+property "PG-DATADIR" "/var/lib/pgsql/9.6/data"
+property "PG-ARCHIVEDIR" "/var/lib/pgsql/9.6/archive"
+property "PG-HOST" "/tmp"
+property "PG-USER" "amandabackup"
+property "PG-PASSFILE" "/etc/amanda/pg_passfile"
      • authentication file: 
        --- /dev/null
+++ b/etc/amanda/pg_passfile
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+/tmp:*:*:amandabackup:pass
    • authorize the server: 
      --- a/var/lib/amanda/.amandahosts
+++ b/var/lib/amanda/.amandahosts
@@ -1,2 +1,3 @@
localhost amandabackup amdump
localhost.localdomain amandabackup amdump
+10.1.9.231 amandabackup amdump
    • PostgreSQL authentication: 
      --- a/var/lib/pgsql/9.6/data/pg_hba.conf
+++ b/var/lib/pgsql/9.6/data/pg_hba.conf
@@ -79,7 +79,8 @@
# "local" is for Unix domain socket connections only
local   all             all                                     trust
# IPv4 local connections:
-host    all             all             127.0.0.1/32            ident
+host    all             all             127.0.0.1/32            trust
+host    all             amandabackup    10.1.9.243/32           trust
# IPv6 local connections:
host    all             all             ::1/128                 ident
# Allow replication connections from localhost, by a user with the
    • PostgreSQL config: 
      --- a/var/lib/pgsql/9.6/data/postgresql.conf
+++ b/var/lib/pgsql/9.6/data/postgresql.conf
@@ -178,6 +178,7 @@ dynamic_shared_memory_type = posix  # the default is the first option

#wal_level = minimal                   # minimal, replica, or logical
                                       # (change requires restart)
+wal_level = replica
#fsync = on                            # flush data to disk for crash safety
                                                # (turning this off can cause
                                                # unrecoverable data corruption)
@@ -215,10 +216,12 @@ dynamic_shared_memory_type = posix        # the default is the first option

#archive_mode = off            # enables archiving; off, on, or always
                              # (change requires restart)
+archive_mode = on
#archive_command = ''          # command to use to archive a logfile segment
                              # placeholders: %p = path of file to archive
                              #               %f = file name only
                              # e.g. 'test ! -f /mnt/server/archivedir/%f && cp %p /mnt/server/archivedir/%f'
+archive_command = 'test ! -f /var/lib/pgsql/9.6/archive/%f && cp %p /var/lib/pgsql/9.6/archive/%f'
#archive_timeout = 0           # force a logfile segment switch after this
                              # number of seconds; 0 disables

Once completed the above configuration, run the backup:

[amandabackup@cc ~]$ amdump omiday

And verify:

[amandabackup@cc ~]$ amreport omiday
Hostname: cc
Org     : omiday
Config  : omiday
Date    : April 14, 2018

These dumps were to tape MyData01.
The next tape Amanda expects to use is: MyData02.


STATISTICS:
                        Total       Full      Incr.   Level:#
                        --------   --------   --------  --------
Estimate Time (hrs:min)     0:00
Run Time (hrs:min)          0:00
Dump Time (hrs:min)         0:00       0:00       0:00
Output Size (meg)            0.1        0.0        0.1
Original Size (meg)         16.0        0.0       16.0
Avg Compressed Size (%)      0.5        --         0.5
DLEs Dumped                    1          0          1  1:1
Avg Dump Rate (k/s)         33.7        --        33.7

Tape Time (hrs:min)         0:00       0:00       0:00
Tape Size (meg)              0.1        0.0        0.1
Tape Used (%)                0.0        0.0        0.0
DLEs Taped                     1          0          1  1:1
Parts Taped                    1          0          1  1:1
Avg Tp Write Rate (k/s)    830.0        --       830.0


USAGE BY TAPE:
Label                 Time         Size      %  DLEs Parts
MyData01              0:00          83K    0.0     1     1


NOTES:
planner: tapecycle (3) <= runspercycle (3)
planner: Last full dump of 10.1.9.243:/var/lib/pgsql/9.6/data on tape MyData04 overwritten in 3 runs.
taper: tape MyData01 kb 83 fm 1 [OK]


DUMP SUMMARY:
                                                               DUMPER STATS   TAPER STATS
HOSTNAME     DISK                    L ORIG-KB  OUT-KB  COMP%  MMM:SS   KB/s MMM:SS   KB/s
-------------------------------------- ---------------------- -------------- -------------
10.1.9.243   /var/lib/pgsql/9.6/data 1   16416      83    0.5    0:02   33.7   0:00  830.0

(brought to you by Amanda version 3.5.1)

Restoring from backup involves more manual steps as explained in the restore section.

According to the Amanda Enterprise FAQ the following enhancement would apply to our PostgreSQL example:

  • management console for automation of backup, retention policies, and schedules
  • backup to Amazon S3 cloud storage

Barman

Barman is a disaster recovery solution for PostgreSQL maintained by 2ndQuadrant. It is designed to manage backups for multiple databases and has the ability to restore to a previous point in time using the PITR feature of PostgreSQL.

Barman’s features at a glance:

  • handles multiple targets
  • support for different PostgreSQL versions
  • zero data loss
  • streaming and/or standard archiving of WALs
  • local or remote recovery
  • simplified point in time recovery

As noted in the Barman Manual, support for incremental backups, parallel jobs, data deduplication, and network compression is available only when using the rsync option. Also, streaming WALs from a standby using the archive_command isn’t currently supported.

After following the instructions in the manual for setting up the environment we can verify:

-bash-4.2$ barman list-server
db1 - master
db2 - replica

-bash-4.2$ barman check db1
Server db1:
      PostgreSQL: OK
      is_superuser: OK
      PostgreSQL streaming: OK
      wal_level: OK
      replication slot: OK
      directories: OK
      retention policy settings: OK
      backup maximum age: OK (no last_backup_maximum_age provided)
      compression settings: OK
      failed backups: OK (there are 0 failed backups)
      minimum redundancy requirements: OK (have 0 backups, expected at least 0)
      pg_basebackup: OK
      pg_basebackup compatible: OK
      pg_basebackup supports tablespaces mapping: OK
      archive_mode: OK
      archive_command: OK
      continuous archiving: OK
      pg_receivexlog: OK
      pg_receivexlog compatible: OK
      receive-wal running: OK
      archiver errors: OK

-bash-4.2$ barman check db2
Server db2:
      PostgreSQL: OK
      is_superuser: OK
      PostgreSQL streaming: OK
      wal_level: OK
      replication slot: OK
      directories: OK
      retention policy settings: OK
      backup maximum age: OK (no last_backup_maximum_age provided)
      compression settings: OK
      failed backups: OK (there are 0 failed backups)
      minimum redundancy requirements: OK (have 0 backups, expected at least 0)
      pg_basebackup: OK
      pg_basebackup compatible: OK
      pg_basebackup supports tablespaces mapping: OK
      archive_mode: OK
      archive_command: OK
      continuous archiving: OK
      pg_receivexlog: OK
      pg_receivexlog compatible: OK
      receive-wal running: OK
      archiver errors: OK

Everything checks OK, so we can test by backing up the two hosts:

-bash-4.2$ barman backup db1
Starting backup using postgres method for server db1 in /var/lib/barman/db1/base/20180414T091155
Backup start at LSN: 0/240001B0 (000000010000000000000024, 000001B0)
Starting backup copy via pg_basebackup for 20180414T091155
Copy done (time: 2 seconds)
Finalising the backup.
This is the first backup for server db1
WAL segments preceding the current backup have been found:
      000000010000000000000023 from server db1 has been removed
Backup size: 201.9 MiB
Backup end at LSN: 0/26000000 (000000010000000000000025, 00000000)
Backup completed (start time: 2018-04-14 09:11:55.783708, elapsed time: 2 seconds)
Processing xlog segments from file archival for db1
      000000010000000000000023
      000000010000000000000024
      000000010000000000000025.00000028.backup
Processing xlog segments from streaming for db1
      000000010000000000000024

-bash-4.2$ barman backup db2
Starting backup using postgres method for server db2 in /var/lib/barman/db2/base/20180414T091225
Backup start at LSN: 0/B0000D0 (00000001000000000000000B, 000000D0)
Starting backup copy via pg_basebackup for 20180414T091225
Copy done (time: 3 seconds)
Finalising the backup.
This is the first backup for server db2
WAL segments preceding the current backup have been found:
      000000010000000000000009 from server db2 has been removed
      00000001000000000000000A from server db2 has been removed
Backup size: 196.8 MiB
Backup end at LSN: 0/D000000 (00000001000000000000000C, 00000000)
Backup completed (start time: 2018-04-14 09:12:25.619005, elapsed time: 3 seconds)
Processing xlog segments from file archival for db2
      00000001000000000000000B
      00000001000000000000000C.00000028.backup
Processing xlog segments from streaming for db2
      00000001000000000000000B

List the backup catalog:

-bash-4.2$ barman list-backup all
db1 20180414T091155 - Sat Apr 14 09:11:58 2018 - Size: 217.9 MiB - WAL Size: 0 B
db2 20180414T091225 - Sat Apr 14 09:12:28 2018 - Size: 212.8 MiB - WAL Size: 0 B

Displaying the contents for a particular backup:

-bash-4.2$ barman list-files db1 20180414T091155 | head
/var/lib/barman/db1/base/20180414T091155/backup.info
/var/lib/barman/db1/base/20180414T091155/data/backup_label
/var/lib/barman/db1/base/20180414T091155/data/PG_VERSION
/var/lib/barman/db1/base/20180414T091155/data/postgresql.auto.conf
/var/lib/barman/db1/base/20180414T091155/data/pg_ident.conf
/var/lib/barman/db1/base/20180414T091155/data/postgresql.conf
/var/lib/barman/db1/base/20180414T091155/data/pg_hba.conf

When Barman was configured for synchronous WAL streaming we can verify the replication status:

-bash-4.2$ barman replication-status db1
Status of streaming clients for server 'db1':
Current LSN on master: 0/26000528
Number of streaming clients: 1

1. Async WAL streamer
   Application name: barman_receive_wal
   Sync stage      : 3/3 Remote write
   Communication   : TCP/IP
   IP Address      : 10.1.9.231 / Port: 37278 / Host: -
   User name       : streaming_barman
   Current state   : streaming (async)
   Replication slot: barman
   WAL sender PID  : 2046
   Started at      : 2018-04-14 09:04:03.019323+00:00
   Sent LSN   : 0/26000528 (diff: 0 B)
   Write LSN  : 0/26000528 (diff: 0 B)
   Flush LSN  : 0/26000000 (diff: -1.3 KiB)

Further enhancements can be added using the provided hook scripts.

Finally, for command line lovers, Barman comes with full TAB completion.

EDB Backup and Recovery Tool (BART)

EDB BART is a closed source proprietary application provided by EnterpriseDB. It combines the PostgreSQL native Filesystem Level Backup and PITR into an easy to use tool providing the following features:

  • retention policies
  • incremental backups
  • complete, hot, physical backups of multiple Postgres Plus Advanced Server and PostgreSQL database servers
  • backup and recovery management of the database servers on local or remote hosts
  • centralized catalog for backup data
  • store backup data in compressed format
  • checksum verification

While the trial version for the latest version v2.1 can only be obtained via a yum repo request, the article Data Backup Made Easy and the product documentation guide offer some information for those curious to learn more.

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pgBackRest

pgBackRest implements a full system backup that doesn’t rely on the common tools tar and rsync. It is currently hosted and made available by CrunchyData under an MIT license. See Recognition for details on its origins.

It offers all the features one would expect from a PostgreSQL centric tool:

  • high backup/restore throughput
  • full, incremental, and differential backups
  • retention policies
  • backup and restore integrity verification through file checksums and integration with PostgreSQL page checksums.
  • ability to resume backups
  • streaming compression and checksums
  • Amazon S3 cloud storage support
  • Encryption

..and much more. Refer to the project page for details.

The installation requires a 64-bit Linux/Unix system and it is outlined in the user guide. The guide also introduces the reader to the main concepts, very useful to those new to PostgreSQL or storage technology.

Although the guide uses command examples for Debian/Ubuntu the pgBackRest is available in the PGDG yum repository, and the installer will pull in all the dependencies:

Installing:

pgbackrest       x86_64  2.01-1.rhel7     pgdg10  36k

Installing       for     dependencies:
perl-DBD-Pg      x86_64  2.19.3-4.el7     base    195k
perl-DBI         x86_64  1.627-4.el7      base    802k
perl-Digest-SHA  x86_64  1:5.85-4.el7     base    58k
perl-JSON-PP     noarch  2.27202-2.el7    base    55k
perl-Net-Daemon  noarch  0.48-5.el7       base    51k
perl-PlRPC       noarch  0.2020-14.el7    base    36k
perl-XML-LibXML  x86_64  1:2.0018-5.el7   base    373k
perl-version     x86_64  3:0.99.07-2.el7  base    84k

Let’s setup two clusters, pg96 and pg10, each having one node:

  • control node (“repository” in the guide): 
    [root@cc ~]# cat /etc/pgbackrest.conf
[global]
repo1-path=/var/lib/pgbackrest
repo1-retention-full=2
start-fast=y

[pg96]
pg1-path=/var/lib/pgsql/9.6/data
pg1-host=db1
pg1-host-user=postgres

[pg10]
pg1-path=/var/lib/pgsql/10/data
pg1-host=db2
pg1-host-user=postgres
  • cluster #1: 
    [root@db-1 ~]# cat /etc/pgbackrest.conf
[global]
log-level-file=detail
repo1-host=repository

[pg96]
pg1-path=/var/lib/pgsql/9.6/data
  • cluster #2: 
    [root@db-2 ~]# cat /etc/pgbackrest.conf
[global]
log-level-file=detail
repo1-host=repository

[pg10]
pg1-path=/var/lib/pgsql/10/data

Next, run backups and display the backup catalog:

-bash-4.2$ pgbackrest --stanza=pg96 info
stanza: pg96
   status: ok

   db (current)
      wal archive min/max (9.6-1): 00000001000000000000003D / 00000001000000000000003D

      full backup: 20180414-120727F
            timestamp start/stop: 2018-04-14 12:07:27 / 2018-04-14 12:08:01
            wal start/stop: 00000001000000000000003D / 00000001000000000000003D
            database size: 185.6MB, backup size: 185.6MB
            repository size: 12.1MB, repository backup size: 12.1MB
-bash-4.2$ pgbackrest --stanza=pg10 info
stanza: pg10
   status: ok

   db (current)
      wal archive min/max (10-1): 000000010000000000000012 / 000000010000000000000012

      full backup: 20180414-120810F
            timestamp start/stop: 2018-04-14 12:08:10 / 2018-04-14 12:08:38
            wal start/stop: 000000010000000000000012 / 000000010000000000000012
            database size: 180.5MB, backup size: 180.5MB
            repository size: 11.6MB, repository backup size: 11.6MB

pgBackRest supports parallelizing of backup and restore — following the example in the guide, we are backing with one CPU and then update the config to use 2 CPUs:

--- a/etc/pgbackrest.conf
+++ b/etc/pgbackrest.conf
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
repo1-path=/var/lib/pgbackrest
repo1-retention-full=2
start-fast=y
+process-max=2

[pg96]
pg1-host=db1

The result:

-bash-4.2$ pgbackrest --stanza=pg96 info
stanza: pg96
    status: ok

    db (current)
        wal archive min/max (9.6-1): 00000001000000000000003D / 000000010000000000000041

        full backup: 20180414-120727F
            timestamp start/stop: 2018-04-14 12:07:27 / 2018-04-14 12:08:01
            wal start/stop: 00000001000000000000003D / 00000001000000000000003D
            database size: 185.6MB, backup size: 185.6MB
            repository size: 12.1MB, repository backup size: 12.1MB

        incr backup: 20180414-120727F_20180414-121434I
            timestamp start/stop: 2018-04-14 12:14:34 / 2018-04-14 12:14:52
            wal start/stop: 00000001000000000000003F / 00000001000000000000003F
            database size: 185.6MB, backup size: 8.2KB
            repository size: 12.1MB, repository backup size: 431B
            backup reference list: 20180414-120727F

        incr backup: 20180414-120727F_20180414-121853I
            timestamp start/stop: 2018-04-14 12:18:53 / 2018-04-14 12:19:08
            wal start/stop: 000000010000000000000041 / 000000010000000000000041
            database size: 185.6MB, backup size: 8.2KB
            repository size: 12.1MB, repository backup size: 429B
            backup reference list: 20180414-120727F

With 2 CPUs the backup ran almost 20% faster which can make a big difference when running against a large data set.

Conclusion

PostgreSQL centric backup tools offer, as expected, more options than general purpose tools. Most PostgreSQL backup tools offer the same core functionality, but their implementation introduces limitations that can only be discovered by carefully following the documentation to test drive the product.

In addition, ClusterControl offers an array of backup and restore features that you can use as part of your database management setup.

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