postgres-backup-s3

Backup and restore PostgreSQL to/from S3 (supports periodic backups and encryption)

Basic Usage

Backup

$ docker run -e S3_ACCESS_KEY_ID=key -e S3_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=secret -e S3_BUCKET=my-bucket -e S3_PREFIX=backup -e POSTGRES_DATABASE=dbname -e POSTGRES_USER=user -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=password -e POSTGRES_HOST=localhost itbm/postgres-backup-s3

Restore

$ docker run -e S3_ACCESS_KEY_ID=key -e S3_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=secret -e S3_BUCKET=my-bucket -e BACKUP_FILE=backup/dbname_0000-00-00T00:00:00Z.sql.gz -e POSTGRES_DATABASE=dbname -e POSTGRES_USER=user -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=password -e POSTGRES_HOST=localhost -e CREATE_DATABASE=yes itbm/postgres-backup-s3

Note: When BACKUP_FILE is provided, the container automatically runs the restore process instead of backup.

Kubernetes Deployment

apiVersion: v1
kind: Namespace
metadata:
  name: backup

---
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: postgresql
  namespace: backup
spec:
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: postgresql
  strategy:
    type: Recreate
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: postgresql
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: postgresql
        image: itbm/postgresql-backup-s3
        imagePullPolicy: Always
        env:
        - name: POSTGRES_DATABASE
          value: ""
        - name: POSTGRES_HOST
          value: ""
        - name: POSTGRES_PORT
          value: ""
        - name: POSTGRES_PASSWORD
          value: ""
        - name: POSTGRES_USER
          value: ""
        - name: S3_ACCESS_KEY_ID
          value: ""
        - name: S3_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY
          value: ""
        - name: S3_BUCKET
          value: ""
        - name: S3_ENDPOINT
          value: ""
        - name: S3_PREFIX
          value: ""
        - name: SCHEDULE
          value: ""

Environment variables

Variable	Default	Required	Description
POSTGRES_DATABASE		Y	Database you want to backup/restore or 'all' to backup/restore everything
POSTGRES_HOST		Y	The PostgreSQL host
POSTGRES_PORT	5432		The PostgreSQL port
POSTGRES_USER		Y	The PostgreSQL user
POSTGRES_PASSWORD		Y	The PostgreSQL password
POSTGRES_EXTRA_OPTS			Extra postgresql options
S3_ACCESS_KEY_ID		Y	Your AWS access key
S3_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY		Y	Your AWS secret key
S3_BUCKET		Y	Your AWS S3 bucket path
S3_PREFIX	backup		Path prefix in your bucket
S3_REGION	us-west-1		The AWS S3 bucket region
S3_ENDPOINT			The AWS Endpoint URL, for S3 Compliant APIs such as minio
S3_S3V4	no		Set to yes to enable AWS Signature Version 4, required for minio servers
SCHEDULE			Backup schedule time, see explainatons below
ENCRYPTION_PASSWORD			Password to encrypt/decrypt the backup
DELETE_OLDER_THAN			Delete old backups, see explanation and warning below
USE_CUSTOM_FORMAT	no		Use PostgreSQL's custom format (-Fc) instead of plain text with compression
COMPRESSION_CMD	gzip		Command used to compress the backup (e.g. pigz for parallel compression) - ignored when USE_CUSTOM_FORMAT=yes
DECOMPRESSION_CMD	gunzip -c		Command used to decompress the backup (e.g. pigz -dc for parallel decompression) - ignored when USE_CUSTOM_FORMAT=yes
PARALLEL_JOBS	1		Number of parallel jobs for pg_restore when using custom format backups
BACKUP_FILE		Y*	Required for restore. The path to the backup file in S3, format: S3_PREFIX/filename
CREATE_DATABASE	no		For restore: Set to yes to create the database if it doesn't exist
DROP_DATABASE	no		For restore: Set to yes to drop the database before restoring (caution: destroys existing data). Use with CREATE_DATABASE=yes to recreate it

Automatic Periodic Backups

You can additionally set the SCHEDULE environment variable like -e SCHEDULE="@daily" to run the backup automatically.

More information about the scheduling can be found here.

Delete Old Backups

You can additionally set the DELETE_OLDER_THAN environment variable like -e DELETE_OLDER_THAN="30 days ago" to delete old backups.

WARNING: this will delete all files in the S3_PREFIX path, not just those created by this script.

Encryption

You can additionally set the ENCRYPTION_PASSWORD environment variable like -e ENCRYPTION_PASSWORD="superstrongpassword" to encrypt the backup. The restore process will automatically detect encrypted backups and decrypt them when the ENCRYPTION_PASSWORD environment variable is set correctly. It can be manually decrypted using openssl aes-256-cbc -d -in backup.sql.gz.enc -out backup.sql.gz.

Backup Format and Compression Options

There are two options for backup format:

1. Plain text format with compression (default):

   • Uses plain SQL text output compressed with gzip/pigz
   • Standard and widely compatible

2. PostgreSQL custom format:

   • Enable with -e USE_CUSTOM_FORMAT=yes
   • Significantly faster than plain text format
   • Produces smaller backup files (built-in compression)
   • Supports parallel restoration for faster restores
   • Allows selective table/schema restoration
   • Recommended for larger databases

For plain text format, backups are compressed with gzip by default. For improved performance on multi-core systems, you can use pigz (parallel gzip) instead:

$ docker run ... -e COMPRESSION_CMD=pigz ... itbm/postgres-backup-s3

$ docker run ... -e DECOMPRESSION_CMD="pigz -dc" ... itbm/postgres-backup-s3

When using custom format with parallel restore:

$ docker run ... -e USE_CUSTOM_FORMAT=yes ... itbm/postgres-backup-s3

$ docker run ... -e PARALLEL_JOBS=4 -e BACKUP_FILE=backup/dbname_0000-00-00T00:00:00Z.dump ... itbm/postgres-backup-s3

Note: Custom format is not available when using POSTGRES_DATABASE=all as pg_dumpall does not support this format.