Backing up and restoring

Backups

BigAnimal backs up the data in your PostgreSQL clusters. You can change the retention period on the Backups tab when you create or edit your cluster. Depending on the cloud your cluster is deployed on, BigAnimal uses either of the following cloud object storage solutions:

Your organization is responsible for the charges associated with the cloud object storage solution.

PostgreSQL clusters in BigAnimal are continuously backed up through a combination of base backups and transaction log (WAL) archiving. When a new cluster is created, an initial "base" backup is taken. After that, every time a WAL file is closed, which is, by default, up to every 5 minutes, it is automatically uploaded to the cloud object storage solution. If your cluster has faraway replicas, BigAnimal copies the WAL files from your cloud object storage solution and asynchronously transfers them to the faraway replicas. Your organization is responsible for the charges associated with the cloud object storage solution.

You can change the retention period on the Additional Settings tab when you create or edit your cluster.

Faraway replicas

As new data from a cluster is archived, BigAnimal copies and transfers the WAL files from your cloud object storage solution and asynchronously transfers them to faraway replicas. If the time interval set for closing a WAL file is too large, it can introduce a delay until the faraway replica receives the latest record. Log shipping does not make any changes to the database tables. It facilitates:

• Low administration overhead
• Predictable timelines
• Minimal network requirements

You can configure backups for faraway replicas as well.

Restores

If a restore is necessary—for example, in case of an accidental DROP TABLE statement—you can restore clusters to any point within the backup retention period.

Cluster restores aren't performed "in-place" on an existing cluster. Instead, a new cluster is created and initialized with data from the backup archive. Restores must replay the transaction logs between the most recent full database backup and the target restore point. Thus restore times (that is, RTO) are dependent on the write activity in the source cluster.

BigAnimal retains backups for 30 days by default. You can restore backups into a new cluster in any region supported by BigAnimal.

Perform a cluster restore

The restore operation is available for any cluster that has at least one available backup. For newly created clusters, the initial backup becomes available a few minutes after the new cluster is fully operational.

1. Select the cluster you want to restore on the Clusters page in the BigAnimal portal.
2. From Quick Actions, select Restore.
3. On the Restore Cluster page:
   1. Fill in the required fields.
   2. In the Source section, in the Point in Time Restore field, select Now on the calendar to restore to the last possible recovery point. Or, choose a timestamp to restore further back in time.
   3. Review your selections in Cluster Summary and select Restore Cluster to begin the restore process.
4. The new cluster is now available on the Clusters page.

Perform an extreme-high-availability cluster restore

You can restore one data group from a PGD cluster into a new PGD cluster. To restore two data groups, restore one data group into a new cluster, and add the second data group manually.

1. On the Clusters page in the BigAnimal portal, select the cluster you want to restore.
2. Select Quick Actions > Restore.
3. In the Cluster Settings tab, enter a cluster name and password for your restored cluster.
4. Select Next: Data Group.
5. Select the Node Settings tab. In the Source section:
   1. Select the data group you want to restore. You can restore only one data group into a new cluster.
   2. Select Fully Restore or Point in Time Restore. A point-in-time restore restores the data group as it was at the specified date and time.
6. In the Nodes section, select Two Data Nodes or Three Data Nodes. For more information on node architecture, see Extreme high availability.
7. Follow Steps 3-5 in Create an extreme-high-availability cluster.
8. Select Restore.

• On this page
• Backups
• Faraway replicas
• Restores