Stefan Fercot: What can't pgBackRest do for you? (PGConf.EU 2023)

Understand the limitations of Postgres

• The archive command is slow in Postgres
• The postmaster process is responsible for determining when to archive

Troubleshooting archiving issues

• Issues with the archive command can be confusing
• Need to monitor the replication location and log sequence number (LSN)
• Use the show archive command to check the status

pgBackRest usage

• pgBackRest: a simple, fast, and reliable backup and restore system for PostgreSQL
• Can be used for Postgres archiving and backup storage
• Supports asynchronous archiving and restoration

Timeline switches

• Multiple timelines can be used in Postgres replication
• Timeline switches can be promoted or demoted
• Archives can be used to store multiple timeline history

Selective restore

• Useful for restoring specific databases or tables

Monitoring and troubleshooting

• Postgres logs can be used to identify issues
• Use the pg_restore command to verify backups
• Restore command can be used to restore backup sets

Compression and speeds

• Compression can be configured for faster archiving
• Use cases for different compression types (e.g., gzip, LZ4)

Restore and recovery

• Restore command uses the backup set to restore the database
• Recovery can be done using the recover command

pgBackRest features

• Supports multiple file systems and storage types
• Archiving and backup storage can be remote or local
• Supports manual and automatic backup and restore