Backup & HA tools
Plan backups and high availability for PostgreSQL
Every PostgreSQL database needs a backup strategy, but the right approach depends on your recovery requirements. Recovery Point Objective (RPO) determines how much data loss is acceptable — from zero (continuous archiving) to hours (nightly pg_dump). Recovery Time Objective (RTO) determines how fast you need to be back online — from seconds (streaming replication failover) to hours (restore from object storage).
PostgreSQL supports multiple backup methods: logical backups with pg_dump/pg_dumpall (portable, selective, but slow for large databases), physical backups with pg_basebackup or tools like pgBackRest and Barman (fast, support PITR), and continuous archiving with WAL shipping for point-in-time recovery. Each method has trade-offs in backup speed, restore speed, storage requirements, and operational complexity.
These tools help you design a backup strategy matched to your RPO/RTO requirements, choose between backup methods, configure WAL archiving, and plan high-availability architectures with streaming replication and automatic failover.
Common problems
- Relying solely on pg_dump without WAL archiving (no point-in-time recovery)
- Not testing backup restores regularly — backups that cannot be restored are worthless
- Missing WAL archiving configuration, making PITR impossible
- Replication lag not monitored, causing stale reads or failover data loss
- No documented failover procedure, leading to extended downtime during incidents