pgBackRest usage guide

[emrahoruc]

Hi, I am using the timescaledb-ha Docker image (pg17.6-ts2.22.0) and I noticed that pgBackRest is included.
However, I cannot find any documentation or examples. How to use it with this Docker image?

Thanks!

[saolof]

For base backups you just set up a cron job that runs the normal pgbackrest command inside the database container, or in a sidecar container that mounts the same data folder/volume. For wal archival you fill out the archive_command field in postgresql.conf, so that postgres will call the pgbackrest wal archival command as a callback each time it is finished with a previous wal file. There is nothing special about the image that changes how you use it, it is just a C binary that is called as a shell command and where you give it a postgres data folder as input.

I strongly recommend carefully reading the postgres docs about how backups are supposed to work, before using an external tool. Understanding what happens in postgres is more important than understanding the tool because understanding the tool becomes trivial if you understand what it is supposed to do:
https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/continuous-archiving.htm

[emrahoruc]

Thanks for the clear explanation @saolof . I will review the docs.