You are looking at the documentation of a prior release. To read the documentation of the latest release, please visit here.

This is an Enterprise-only feature. Please install Stash Enterprise Edition to try this feature.

Backup PostgreSQL using Stash Auto-Backup

Stash can be configured to automatically backup any PostgreSQL database in your cluster. Stash enables cluster administrators to deploy backup blueprints ahead of time so that the database owners can easily backup their database with just a few annotations.

In this tutorial, we are going to show how you can configure a backup blueprint for PostgreSQL databases in your cluster and backup them with few annotations.

Before You Begin

At first, you need to have a Kubernetes cluster, and the kubectl command-line tool must be configured to communicate with your cluster.
Install Stash Enterprise in your cluster following the steps here.
Install KubeDB in your cluster following the steps here. This step is optional. You can deploy your database using any method you want.
If you are not familiar with how Stash backup and restore PostgreSQL databases, please check the following guide here.
If you are not familiar with how auto-backup works in Stash, please check the following guide here.
If you are not familiar with the available auto-backup options for databases in Stash, please check the following guide here.

You should be familiar with the following Stash concepts:

In this tutorial, we are going to show backup of three different PostgreSQL databases on three different namespaces named demo, demo-2, and demo-3. Create the namespaces as below if you haven’t done it already.

❯ kubectl create ns demo
namespace/demo created

❯ kubectl create ns demo-2
namespace/demo-2 created

❯ kubectl create ns demo-3
namespace/demo-3 created

When you install Stash Enterprise edition, it will automatically installs the official database addons. Make sure the addons for PostgreSQL was installed properly using the following command.

❯ kubectl get tasks.stash.appscode.com | grep postgres
postgres-backup-10.14      8d
postgres-backup-11.9       8d
postgres-backup-12.4       8d
postgres-backup-13.1       8d
postgres-backup-9.6.19     8d
postgres-restore-10.14     8d
postgres-restore-11.9      8d
postgres-restore-12.4      8d
postgres-restore-13.1      8d
postgres-restore-9.6.19    8d

Prepare Backup Blueprint

To backup a PostgreSQL database using Stash, you have to create a Secret containing the backend credentials, a Repository containing the backend information, and a BackupConfiguration containing the schedule and target information. A BackupBlueprint allows you to specify a template for the Repository and the BackupConfiguration.

The BackupBlueprint is a non-namespaced CRD. So, once you have created a BackupBlueprint, you can use it to backup any PostgreSQL database of any namespace just by creating the storage Secret in that namespace and adding few annotations to your Postgres CRO. Then, Stash will automatically create a Repository and a BackupConfiguration according to the template to backup the database.

Below is the BackupBlueprint object that we are going to use in this tutorial,

apiVersion: stash.appscode.com/v1beta1
kind: BackupBlueprint
metadata:
  name: postgres-backup-template
spec:
  # ============== Blueprint for Repository ==========================
  backend:
    gcs:
      bucket: stash-testing
      prefix: stash-backup/${TARGET_NAMESPACE}/${TARGET_APP_RESOURCE}/${TARGET_NAME}
    storageSecretName: gcs-secret
  # ============== Blueprint for BackupConfiguration =================
  task:
    name: postgres-backup-11.9
  schedule: "*/5 * * * *"
  retentionPolicy:
    name: 'keep-last-5'
    keepLast: 5
    prune: true

Here, we are using a GCS bucket as our backend. We are providing gcs-secret at the storageSecretName field. Hence, we have to create a secret named gcs-secret with the access credentials of our bucket in every namespace where we want to enable backup through this blueprint.

Notice the prefix field of backend section. We have used some variables in form of ${VARIABLE_NAME}. Stash will automatically resolve those variables from the database information to make the backend prefix unique for each database instance.

Let’s create the BackupBlueprint we have shown above,

❯ kubectl apply -f https://github.com/stashed/docs/raw/v2023.03.13/docs/addons/postgres/auto-backup/examples/backupblueprint.yaml
backupblueprint.stash.appscode.com/postgres-backup-template created

Now, we are ready to backup our PostgreSQL databases using few annotations. You can check available auto-backup annotations for a database from here.

Auto-backup with default configurations

In this section, we are going to backup a PostgreSQL database of demo namespace. We are going to use the default configurations specified in the BackupBlueprint.

Create Storage Secret

At first, let’s create the gcs-secret in demo namespace with the access credentials to our GCS bucket.

❯ echo -n 'changeit' > RESTIC_PASSWORD
❯ echo -n '<your-project-id>' > GOOGLE_PROJECT_ID
❯ cat downloaded-sa-json.key > GOOGLE_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_JSON_KEY
❯ kubectl create secret generic -n demo gcs-secret \
    --from-file=./RESTIC_PASSWORD \
    --from-file=./GOOGLE_PROJECT_ID \
    --from-file=./GOOGLE_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_JSON_KEY
secret/gcs-secret created

Create Database

Now, we are going to create a Postgres CRO in demo namespace. Below is the YAML of the PostgreSQL object that we are going to create,

apiVersion: kubedb.com/v1alpha2
kind: Postgres
metadata:
  name: sample-postgres-1
  namespace: demo
  annotations:
    stash.appscode.com/backup-blueprint: postgres-backup-template
spec:
  version: "11.11"
  storageType: Durable
  storage:
    storageClassName: "standard"
    accessModes:
    - ReadWriteOnce
    resources:
      requests:
        storage: 1Gi
  terminationPolicy: Delete

Notice the annotations section. We are pointing to the BackupBlueprint that we have created earlier though stash.appscode.com/backup-blueprint annotation. Stash will watch this annotation and create a Repository and a BackupConfiguration according to the BackupBlueprint.

Let’s create the above Postgres CRO,

❯ kubectl apply -f https://github.com/stashed/docs/raw/v2023.03.13/docs/addons/postgres/auto-backup/examples/sample-pg-1.yaml
postgres.kubedb.com/sample-postgres-1 created

Verify Auto-backup configured

In this section, we are going to verify whether Stash has created the respective Repository and BackupConfiguration for our PostgreSQL database we have just deployed.

Verify Repository

At first, let’s verify whether Stash has created a Repository for our PostgreSQL or not.

❯ kubectl get repository -n demo
NAME                    INTEGRITY   SIZE   SNAPSHOT-COUNT   LAST-SUCCESSFUL-BACKUP   AGE
app-sample-postgres-1                                                                25s

Now, let’s check the YAML of the Repository.

❯ kubectl get repository -n demo app-sample-postgres-1 -o yaml
apiVersion: stash.appscode.com/v1alpha1
kind: Repository
metadata:
  name: app-sample-postgres-1
  namespace: demo
  ...
spec:
  backend:
    gcs:
      bucket: stash-testing
      prefix: stash-backup/demo/postgres/sample-postgres-1
    storageSecretName: gcs-secret

Here, you can see that Stash has resolved the variables in prefix field and substituted them with the equivalent information from this database.

Verify BackupConfiguration

If everything goes well, Stash should create a BackupConfiguration for our Postgres in demo namespace and the phase of that BackupConfiguration should be Ready. Verify the BackupConfiguration crd by the following command,

❯ kubectl get backupconfiguration -n demo
NAME                    TASK                        SCHEDULE      PAUSED   PHASE   AGE
app-sample-postgres-1   postgres-backup-11.9        */5 * * * *            Ready   97s

Now, let’s check the YAML of the BackupConfiguration.

❯ kubectl get backupconfiguration -n demo app-sample-postgres-1 -o yaml
apiVersion: stash.appscode.com/v1beta1
kind: BackupConfiguration
metadata:
  name: app-sample-postgres-1
  namespace: demo
  ...
spec:
  driver: Restic
  repository:
    name: app-sample-postgres-1
  retentionPolicy:
    keepLast: 5
    name: keep-last-5
    prune: true
  runtimeSettings: {}
  schedule: '*/5 * * * *'
  target:
    ref:
      apiVersion: appcatalog.appscode.com/v1alpha1
      kind: AppBinding
      name: sample-postgres-1
  task:
    name: postgres-backup-11.9
  tempDir: {}
status:
  conditions:
  - lastTransitionTime: "2021-02-23T09:38:19Z"
    message: Repository demo/app-sample-postgres-1 exist.
    reason: RepositoryAvailable
    status: "True"
    type: RepositoryFound
  - lastTransitionTime: "2021-02-23T09:38:19Z"
    message: Backend Secret demo/gcs-secret exist.
    reason: BackendSecretAvailable
    status: "True"
    type: BackendSecretFound
  - lastTransitionTime: "2021-02-23T09:38:19Z"
    message: Backup target appcatalog.appscode.com/v1alpha1 appbinding/sample-postgres-1
      found.
    reason: TargetAvailable
    status: "True"
    type: BackupTargetFound
  - lastTransitionTime: "2021-02-23T09:38:19Z"
    message: Successfully created backup triggering CronJob.
    reason: CronJobCreationSucceeded
    status: "True"
    type: CronJobCreated
  observedGeneration: 1

Notice the target section. Stash has automatically added the respective AppBinding of our PostgreSQL database as the target of this BackupConfiguration.

Verify Backup

Now, let’s wait for a backup run to complete. You can watch for BackupSession as below,

❯  kubectl get backupsession -n demo -w
NAME                               INVOKER-TYPE          INVOKER-NAME            PHASE       AGE
app-sample-postgres-1-1614073215   BackupConfiguration   app-sample-postgres-1               0s
app-sample-postgres-1-1614073215   BackupConfiguration   app-sample-postgres-1   Running     3s
app-sample-postgres-1-1614073215   BackupConfiguration   app-sample-postgres-1   Succeeded   47s

Once the backup has been completed successfully, you should see the backed-up data has been stored in the bucket at the directory pointed by the prefix field of the Repository.

Auto-backup with a custom schedule

In this section, we are going to backup a PostgreSQL database of demo-2 namespace. This time, we are going to overwrite the default schedule used in the BackupBlueprint.

Create Storage Secret

At first, let’s create the backend Secret gcs-secret in demo-2 namespace with the access credentials to our GCS bucket.

❯ kubectl create secret generic -n demo-2 gcs-secret \
    --from-file=./RESTIC_PASSWORD \
    --from-file=./GOOGLE_PROJECT_ID \
    --from-file=./GOOGLE_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_JSON_KEY
secret/gcs-secret created

Create Database

Now, we are going to create a Postgres CRO in demo-2 namespace. Below is the YAML of the PostgreSQL object that we are going to create,

apiVersion: kubedb.com/v1alpha2
kind: Postgres
metadata:
  name: sample-postgres-2
  namespace: demo-2
  annotations:
    stash.appscode.com/backup-blueprint: postgres-backup-template
    stash.appscode.com/schedule: "*/3 * * * *"
spec:
  version: "11.11"
  storageType: Durable
  storage:
    storageClassName: "standard"
    accessModes:
    - ReadWriteOnce
    resources:
      requests:
        storage: 1Gi
  terminationPolicy: Delete

Notice the annotations section. This time, we have passed a schedule via stash.appscode.com/schedule annotation along with the stash.appscode.com/backup-blueprint annotation.

Let’s create the above Postgres CRO,

❯ kubectl apply -f https://github.com/stashed/docs/raw/v2023.03.13/docs/addons/postgres/auto-backup/examples/sample-pg-2.yaml
postgres.kubedb.com/sample-postgres-2 created

Verify Auto-backup configured

Now, let’s verify whether the auto-backup has been configured properly or not.

Verify Repository

At first, let’s verify whether Stash has created a Repository for our PostgreSQL or not.

❯ kubectl get repository -n demo-2
NAME                    INTEGRITY   SIZE   SNAPSHOT-COUNT   LAST-SUCCESSFUL-BACKUP   AGE
app-sample-postgres-2                                                                13s

Now, let’s check the YAML of the Repository.

❯ kubectl get repository -n demo-2 app-sample-postgres-2 -o yaml
apiVersion: stash.appscode.com/v1alpha1
kind: Repository
metadata:
  name: app-sample-postgres-2
  namespace: demo-2
  ...
spec:
  backend:
    gcs:
      bucket: stash-testing
      prefix: stash-backup/demo-2/postgres/sample-postgres-2
    storageSecretName: gcs-secret

Here, you can see that Stash has resolved the variables in prefix field and substituted them with the equivalent information from this new database.

Verify BackupConfiguration

If everything goes well, Stash should create a BackupConfiguration for our Postgres in demo-2 namespace and the phase of that BackupConfiguration should be Ready. Verify the BackupConfiguration crd by the following command,

❯ kubectl get backupconfiguration -n demo-2
NAME                    TASK                        SCHEDULE      PAUSED   PHASE   AGE
app-sample-postgres-2   postgres-backup-11.9        */3 * * * *            Ready   61s

Now, let’s check the YAML of the BackupConfiguration.

❯ kubectl get backupconfiguration -n demo-2 app-sample-postgres-2 -o yaml
apiVersion: stash.appscode.com/v1beta1
kind: BackupConfiguration
metadata:
  name: app-sample-postgres-2
  namespace: demo-2
  ...
spec:
  driver: Restic
  repository:
    name: app-sample-postgres-2
  retentionPolicy:
    keepLast: 5
    name: keep-last-5
    prune: true
  runtimeSettings: {}
  schedule: '*/3 * * * *'
  target:
    ref:
      apiVersion: appcatalog.appscode.com/v1alpha1
      kind: AppBinding
      name: sample-postgres-2
  task:
    name: postgres-backup-11.9
  tempDir: {}
status:
  conditions:
  - lastTransitionTime: "2021-02-23T09:44:33Z"
    message: Repository demo-2/app-sample-postgres-2 exist.
    reason: RepositoryAvailable
    status: "True"
    type: RepositoryFound
  - lastTransitionTime: "2021-02-23T09:44:33Z"
    message: Backend Secret demo-2/gcs-secret exist.
    reason: BackendSecretAvailable
    status: "True"
    type: BackendSecretFound
  - lastTransitionTime: "2021-02-23T09:44:33Z"
    message: Backup target appcatalog.appscode.com/v1alpha1 appbinding/sample-postgres-2
      found.
    reason: TargetAvailable
    status: "True"
    type: BackupTargetFound
  - lastTransitionTime: "2021-02-23T09:44:33Z"
    message: Successfully created backup triggering CronJob.
    reason: CronJobCreationSucceeded
    status: "True"
    type: CronJobCreated
  observedGeneration: 1

Notice the schedule section. This time the BackupConfiguration has been created with the schedule we have provided via annotation.

Also, notice the target section. Stash has automatically added the new PostgreSQL as the target of this BackupConfiguration.

Verify Backup

Now, let’s wait for a backup run to complete. You can watch for BackupSession as below,

❯  kubectl get backupsession -n demo-2 -w
NAME                               INVOKER-TYPE          INVOKER-NAME            PHASE       AGE
app-sample-postgres-2-1614073502   BackupConfiguration   app-sample-postgres-2               0s
app-sample-postgres-2-1614073502   BackupConfiguration   app-sample-postgres-2   Running     2s
app-sample-postgres-2-1614073502   BackupConfiguration   app-sample-postgres-2   Succeeded   48s

Once the backup has been completed successfully, you should see that Stash has created a new directory as pointed by the prefix field of the new Repository and stored the backed-up data there.

Auto-backup with custom parameters

In this section, we are going to backup a PostgreSQL database of demo-3 namespace. This time, we are going to pass some parameters for the Task through the annotations.

Create Storage Secret

At first, let’s create the gcs-secret in demo-3 namespace with the access credentials to our GCS bucket.

❯ kubectl create secret generic -n demo-3 gcs-secret \
    --from-file=./RESTIC_PASSWORD \
    --from-file=./GOOGLE_PROJECT_ID \
    --from-file=./GOOGLE_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_JSON_KEY
secret/gcs-secret created

Create Database

Now, we are going to create a Postgres CRO in demo-3 namespace. Below is the YAML of the PostgreSQL object that we are going to create,

apiVersion: kubedb.com/v1alpha2
kind: Postgres
metadata:
  name: sample-postgres-3
  namespace: demo-3
  annotations:
    stash.appscode.com/backup-blueprint: postgres-backup-template
    params.stash.appscode.com/args: --no-owner --clean
spec:
  version: "11.11"
  storageType: Durable
  storage:
    storageClassName: "standard"
    accessModes:
    - ReadWriteOnce
    resources:
      requests:
        storage: 1Gi
  terminationPolicy: Delete

Notice the annotations section. This time, we have passed an argument via params.stash.appscode.com/args annotation along with the stash.appscode.com/backup-blueprint annotation.

Let’s create the above Postgres CRO,

❯ kubectl apply -f https://github.com/stashed/docs/raw/v2023.03.13/docs/addons/postgres/auto-backup/examples/sample-pg-3.yaml
postgres.kubedb.com/sample-postgres-3 created

Verify Auto-backup configured

Now, let’s verify whether the auto-backup resources has been created or not.

Verify Repository

At first, let’s verify whether Stash has created a Repository for our PostgreSQL or not.

❯ kubectl get repository -n demo-3
NAME                    INTEGRITY   SIZE   SNAPSHOT-COUNT   LAST-SUCCESSFUL-BACKUP   AGE
app-sample-postgres-3                                                                17s

Now, let’s check the YAML of the Repository.

❯ kubectl get repository -n demo-3 app-sample-postgres-3 -o yaml
apiVersion: stash.appscode.com/v1alpha1
kind: Repository
metadata:
  name: app-sample-postgres-3
  namespace: demo-3
  ...
spec:
  backend:
    gcs:
      bucket: stash-testing
      prefix: stash-backup/demo-3/postgres/sample-postgres-3
    storageSecretName: gcs-secret

Here, you can see that Stash has resolved the variables in prefix field and substituted them with the equivalent information from this new database.

Verify BackupConfiguration

If everything goes well, Stash should create a BackupConfiguration for our Postgres in demo-3 namespace and the phase of that BackupConfiguration should be Ready. Verify the BackupConfiguration crd by the following command,

❯ kubectl get backupconfiguration -n demo-3
NAME                    TASK                        SCHEDULE      PAUSED   PHASE   AGE
app-sample-postgres-3   postgres-backup-11.9        */5 * * * *            Ready   51s

Now, let’s check the YAML of the BackupConfiguration.

❯ kubectl get backupconfiguration -n demo-3 app-sample-postgres-3 -o yaml
apiVersion: stash.appscode.com/v1beta1
kind: BackupConfiguration
metadata:
  name: app-sample-postgres-3
  namespace: demo-3
  ...
spec:
  driver: Restic
  repository:
    name: app-sample-postgres-3
  retentionPolicy:
    keepLast: 5
    name: keep-last-5
    prune: true
  runtimeSettings: {}
  schedule: '*/5 * * * *'
  target:
    ref:
      apiVersion: appcatalog.appscode.com/v1alpha1
      kind: AppBinding
      name: sample-postgres-3
  task:
    name: postgres-backup-11.9
    params:
    - name: args
      value: --no-owner --clean
  tempDir: {}
status:
  conditions:
  - lastTransitionTime: "2021-02-23T09:48:15Z"
    message: Repository demo-3/app-sample-postgres-3 exist.
    reason: RepositoryAvailable
    status: "True"
    type: RepositoryFound
  - lastTransitionTime: "2021-02-23T09:48:15Z"
    message: Backend Secret demo-3/gcs-secret exist.
    reason: BackendSecretAvailable
    status: "True"
    type: BackendSecretFound
  - lastTransitionTime: "2021-02-23T09:48:15Z"
    message: Backup target appcatalog.appscode.com/v1alpha1 appbinding/sample-postgres-3
      found.
    reason: TargetAvailable
    status: "True"
    type: BackupTargetFound
  - lastTransitionTime: "2021-02-23T09:48:15Z"
    message: Successfully created backup triggering CronJob.
    reason: CronJobCreationSucceeded
    status: "True"
    type: CronJobCreated
  observedGeneration: 1

Notice the task section. The args parameter that we had passed via annotations has been added to the params section.

Also, notice the target section. Stash has automatically added the new PostgreSQL as the target of this BackupConfiguration.

Verify Backup

Now, let’s wait for a backup run to complete. You can watch for BackupSession as below,

❯  kubectl get backupsession -n demo-3 -w
NAME                               INVOKER-TYPE          INVOKER-NAME            PHASE       AGE
app-sample-postgres-3-1614073808   BackupConfiguration   app-sample-postgres-3               0s
app-sample-postgres-3-1614073808   BackupConfiguration   app-sample-postgres-3   Running     3s
app-sample-postgres-3-1614073808   BackupConfiguration   app-sample-postgres-3   Succeeded   47s

Once the backup has been completed successfully, you should see that Stash has created a new directory as pointed by the prefix field of the new Repository and stored the backed-up data there.

Cleanup

To cleanup the resources crated by this tutorial, run the following commands,

❯ kubectl delete -f https://github.com/stashed/docs/raw/v2023.03.13/docs/addons/postgres/auto-backup/examples/
backupblueprint.stash.appscode.com "postgres-backup-template" deleted
postgres.kubedb.com "sample-postgres-1" deleted
postgres.kubedb.com "sample-postgres-2" deleted
postgres.kubedb.com "sample-postgres-3" deleted

❯ kubectl delete repository -n demo --all
repository.stash.appscode.com "app-sample-postgres-1" deleted
❯ kubectl delete repository -n demo-2 --all
repository.stash.appscode.com "app-sample-postgres-2" deleted
❯ kubectl delete repository -n demo-3 --all
repository.stash.appscode.com "app-sample-postgres-3" deleted

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Backup PostgreSQL using Stash Auto-Backup

Before You Begin

Prepare Backup Blueprint

Auto-backup with default configurations

Create Storage Secret

Create Database

Verify Auto-backup configured

Verify Repository

Verify BackupConfiguration

Verify Backup

Auto-backup with a custom schedule

Create Storage Secret

Create Database

Verify Auto-backup configured

Verify Repository

Verify BackupConfiguration

Verify Backup

Auto-backup with custom parameters

Create Storage Secret

Create Database

Verify Auto-backup configured

Verify Repository

Verify BackupConfiguration

Verify Backup

Cleanup

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