pg-backup

a small tool for backing up postgres databases to backblaze b2

Note: This project is in early development, and versioning is a little different. Read this for more details.

Why should you care?

Are you running a database on a linux box? What if that box suddenly is destroyed? Back up your databases so that in the event of a catastrophe, all is well. Backblaze B2 is the lowest cost long term storage backup service on the market, and the first 10gb are free, so you will pay little-to-nothing for your peace of mind.

Installation

npm install pg-backup -g

Note: Postgresql must also be installed in order for pg-backup to work

Usage

This project exposes a command line interface and a javascript API. We'll cover the use of both below.

CLI

In order to use the CLI, you first must configure it with your backblaze b2 API keys. To do this, run:

$ pg-backup --account-id xxx --application-key xxx --bucket-id xxx

You can get the account id and application key from the b2 dashboard. You'll also need to create a new bucket for your database backups. Once the bucket has been created, it will show you the bucket id.

You can change your configuration details at any time. Once you have successfully authenticated, you can start backing up your databases. Test it out by backing up a database one time, manually, as such:

$ pg-backup --dbname database-name

If you'd like to have the database backed up at regular intervals, you can use the --schedule option. For example:

$ pg-backup --dbname database-name --schedule daily

You can have databases backed up hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly. Note that pg-backup will simply create a cron script to run these backups, so you must have crontab active and working in order to use the schedule option.

Javascript API

If you wish to use pg-backup through node.js, it exports a class that can be used to easily control your backups. First, you need to initialize the class with your backblaze credentials, as such:

const PgBackup = require('pg-backup')
 
const backup = new PgBackup({
  accountId: 'xxx',
  applicationKey: 'xxx',
  bucketId: 'xxx'
})

Now you can quickly back up a single database with the run instance method, which returns a promise:

backup.run({ name: 'database-name' })
  .then(console.log)

There are no scheduling options currently available in the javascript API. If you want long-running consistent backups, the CLI is recommended.

Running Tests

Since we depend on B2 in order for this to work, you need a B2 account in order to run the tests. In order to add your b2 account details, run cp test/.env.sample test/.env, then fill in test/.env with your account details. Make sure that you make a new bucket for testing specifically.

License & Contributing

• Details on the license can be found here
• Details on running tests and contributing can be found here