KubeBlocks
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Overview
Quickstart

Operations

Lifecycle Management
Vertical Scaling
Horizontal Scaling
Volume Expansion
Manage PostgreSQL Services
Minor Version Upgrade
Modify PostgreSQL Parameters
PostgreSQL Switchover
Decommission PostgreSQL Replica
Recovering PostgreSQL Replica

Backup And Restores

Create BackupRepo
Create Full Backup
Scheduled Backups
Scheduled Continuous Backup
Restore PostgreSQL Cluster
Restore with PITR

Custom Secret

Custom Password

TLS

PostgreSQL Cluster with TLS
PostgreSQL Cluster with Custom TLS

Monitoring

Observability for PostgreSQL Clusters

tpl

  1. Prerequisites
  2. Deploy a PostgreSQL Cluster
  3. Verifying the Deployment
  4. Backup Prerequisites
  5. Identify Backup Configuration
  6. Backup via Backup API
    1. 1. Create On-Demand Backup
    2. 2. Monitor Backup and Verify Completion
    3. 3. Validate Backup
  7. Backup via OpsRequest API
    1. 1. Create On-Demand Backup
    2. 2. Monitor Backup Progress
      1. 1. Monitor Operation Status
      2. 2. Verify Completion
    3. 3. Validate Backup
  8. Troubleshooting
  9. Summary

Create a Full Backup for PostgreSQL on KubeBlocks

This guide demonstrates how to create and validate full backups for PostgreSQL clusters on KubeBlocks using the pg-basebackup method through both:

  • The Backup API (direct backup operations)
  • The OpsRequest API (managed backup operations with enhanced monitoring)

We will cover how to restore data from a backup in the Restore From Full Backup guide.

Prerequisites

    Before proceeding, ensure the following:

    • Environment Setup:
      • A Kubernetes cluster is up and running.
      • The kubectl CLI tool is configured to communicate with your cluster.
      • KubeBlocks CLI and KubeBlocks Operator are installed. Follow the installation instructions here.
    • Namespace Preparation: To keep resources isolated, create a dedicated namespace for this tutorial:
    kubectl create ns demo namespace/demo created

    Deploy a PostgreSQL Cluster

      KubeBlocks uses a declarative approach for managing PostgreSQL clusters. Below is an example configuration for deploying a PostgreSQL cluster with 2 replicas (1 primary, 1 replicas).

      Apply the following YAML configuration to deploy the cluster:

      apiVersion: apps.kubeblocks.io/v1 kind: Cluster metadata: name: pg-cluster namespace: demo spec: terminationPolicy: Delete clusterDef: postgresql topology: replication componentSpecs: - name: postgresql serviceVersion: 16.4.0 labels: apps.kubeblocks.postgres.patroni/scope: pg-cluster-postgresql disableExporter: true replicas: 2 resources: limits: cpu: "0.5" memory: "0.5Gi" requests: cpu: "0.5" memory: "0.5Gi" volumeClaimTemplates: - name: data spec: accessModes: - ReadWriteOnce resources: requests: storage: 20Gi

      Verifying the Deployment

        Monitor the cluster status until it transitions to the Running state:

        kubectl get cluster pg-cluster -n demo -w

        Expected Output:

        NAME CLUSTER-DEFINITION TERMINATION-POLICY STATUS AGE pg-cluster postgresql Delete Creating 50s pg-cluster postgresql Delete Running 4m2s

        Once the cluster status becomes Running, your PostgreSQL cluster is ready for use.

        TIP

        If you are creating the cluster for the very first time, it may take some time to pull images before running.

        Backup Prerequisites

        Before creating backups, ensure:

        1. Backup repository is configured:

          • BackupRepo resource exists
          • Network connectivity between cluster and repository
          • BackupRepo status shows "Ready"
        2. Cluster is ready:

          • Cluster status is "Running"
          • No ongoing operations (scaling, upgrades, etc.)

        Identify Backup Configuration

        Check available backup policies and schedules:

        # List backup policies kubectl get backuppolicy -n demo -l app.kubernetes.io/instance=pg-cluster # List backup schedules kubectl get backupschedule -n demo -l app.kubernetes.io/instance=pg-cluster

        Expected Output:

        NAME BACKUP-REPO STATUS AGE pg-cluster-postgresql-backup-policy Available 58m NAME STATUS AGE pg-cluster-postgresql-backup-schedule Available 60m

        View supported backup methods in the BackupPolicy CR 'pg-cluster-postgresql-backup-policy':

        kubectl get backuppolicy pg-cluster-postgresql-backup-policy -n demo -oyaml | yq '.spec.backupMethods[].name'

        Example Output:

        pg-basebackup wal-g wal-g-incremental archive-wal wal-g-archive

        List of Backup methods

        KubeBlocks PostgreSQL supports these backup methods:

        FeatureMethodDescription
        Full Backuppg-basebackupUses pg_basebackup, a PostgreSQL utility to create a base backup
        Full Backupwal-gUses wal-g to create a full backup (requires WAL-G configuration)
        Continuous Backuppostgresql-pitrUploads PostgreSQL Write-Ahead Logging (WAL) files periodically to the backup repository, usually paired with pg-basebackup
        Continuous Backupwal-g-archiveUploads PostgreSQL Write-Ahead Logging (WAL) files periodically to the backup repository, usually paired with wal-g

        Backup via Backup API

        1. Create On-Demand Backup

        The pg-basebackup method uses PostgreSQL's native pg_basebackup utility.

        Apply this manifest to create a backup:

        apiVersion: dataprotection.kubeblocks.io/v1alpha1 kind: Backup metadata: name: pg-cluster-pg-basebackup namespace: demo spec: backupMethod: pg-basebackup backupPolicyName: pg-cluster-postgresql-backup-policy # Determines whether the backup contents stored in the backup repository should be deleted # when the backup custom resource(CR) is deleted. Supported values are `Retain` and `Delete`. # - `Retain` means that the backup content and its physical snapshot on backup repository are kept. # - `Delete` means that the backup content and its physical snapshot on backup repository are deleted. deletionPolicy: Delete

        2. Monitor Backup and Verify Completion

        Track progress until status shows "Completed":

        kubectl get backup pg-cluster-pg-basebackup -n demo -w

        Example Output:

        NAME POLICY METHOD REPO STATUS TOTAL-SIZE DURATION DELETION-POLICY CREATION-TIME COMPLETION-TIME EXPIRATION-TIME pg-cluster-pg-basebackup pg-cluster-postgresql-backup-policy pg-basebackup <BACKUP_REPO> Completed 4722262 10s Delete 2025-05-16T02:53:45Z 2025-05-16T02:53:55Z

        3. Validate Backup

        Confirm successful completion by checking:

        • Backup status shows "Completed"
        • Backup size matches expectations
        • Check files in the BackupRepo

        The Backup resource records details including:

        • Storage path
        • Time range
        • Backup file size

        Backup via OpsRequest API

        1. Create On-Demand Backup

        Execute a backup using the OpsRequest API with the 'pg-basebackup' method:

        apiVersion: operations.kubeblocks.io/v1alpha1 kind: OpsRequest metadata: name: pg-cluster-backup namespace: demo spec: clusterName: pg-cluster force: false backup: backupPolicyName: pg-cluster-postgresql-backup-policy backupMethod: pg-basebackup deletionPolicy: Delete retentionPeriod: 1mo type: Backup

        2. Monitor Backup Progress

        1. Monitor Operation Status

        Track backup progress in real-time:

        kubectl get ops pg-cluster-backup -n demo -w

        Expected Output:

        NAME TYPE CLUSTER STATUS PROGRESS AGE pg-cluster-backup Backup pg-cluster Succeed -/- 35s
        • A STATUS of 'Succeed' indicates the backup operation completed successfully.

        2. Verify Completion

        Check the final backup status:

        kubectl get backup -n demo -l operations.kubeblocks.io/ops-name=pg-cluster-backup

        Example Output:

        NAME POLICY METHOD REPO STATUS TOTAL-SIZE DURATION DELETION-POLICY CREATION-TIME COMPLETION-TIME EXPIRATION-TIME backup-demo-pg-cluster-20250516025810 pg-cluster-postgresql-backup-policy pg-basebackup <BACKUP_REPO> Completed 4725590 10s Delete 2025-05-16T02:58:10Z 2025-05-16T02:58:20Z 2025-06-15T02:58:20Z
        • The backup status should show 'Completed'.

        3. Validate Backup

        Confirm successful completion by checking:

        • Backup status shows "Completed"
        • Backup size matches expectations
        • Files in the BackupRepo

        The Backup resource records details including:

        • Storage path
        • Time range
        • Other metadata

        Troubleshooting

        When encountering backup issues, such as Backup status is Failed or stucks in Runningfor quite a long time, follow these steps to diagnose and resolve the problem:

        1. Inspect the Backup resource for any error events or status updates:
        kubectl describe backup <BACKUP_NAME> -n demo
        1. Verify the backup job status and examine its logs:
        kubectl -n demo get job -l app.kubernetes.io/instance=pg-cluster,app.kubernetes.io/managed-by=kubeblocks-dataprotection

        And check pod logs:

        kubectl -n demo logs <POD_NAME>
        1. Review KubeBlocks controller logs for detailed error information:
        kubectl -n kb-system logs deploy/kubeblocks -f

        Summary

        This guide covered:

        1. Deploying a replication PostgreSQL cluster
        2. Creating full backups using:
          • Direct Backup API
          • Managed OpsRequest API
        3. Monitoring and validating backups

        Your PostgreSQL data is now securely backed up and ready for restoration when needed.

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