Table of Contents

NAME
SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
OPTIONS
COMMANDS
BACKUP ID SHORTCUTS
EXIT STATUS
SEE ALSO
BUGS
AUTHORS
RESOURCES
COPYING

NAME

barman - Backup and Recovery Manager for PostgreSQL

SYNOPSIS

barman [OPTIONS] COMMAND

DESCRIPTION

Barman is an administration tool for disaster recovery of PostgreSQL servers written in Python and maintained by EnterpriseDB. Barman can perform remote backups of multiple servers in business critical environments and helps DBAs during the recovery phase.

OPTIONS

-h, --help: Show a help message and exit.
-v, --version: Show program version number and exit.
-c CONFIG, --config CONFIG: Use the specified configuration file.
--color {never,always,auto}, --colour {never,always,auto}: Whether to use colors in the output (default: auto)
-q, --quiet: Do not output anything. Useful for cron scripts.
-d, --debug: debug output (default: False)
--log-level {NOTSET,DEBUG,INFO,WARNING,ERROR,CRITICAL}: Override the default log level
-f {json,console}, --format {json,console}: output format (default: 'console')

COMMANDS

Important: every command has a help option

archive-wal SERVER_NAME

Get any incoming xlog file (both through standard archive_command and streaming replication, where applicable) and moves them in the WAL archive for that server. If necessary, apply compression when requested by the user.

backup SERVER_NAME

Perform a backup of SERVER_NAME using parameters specified in the configuration file. Specify all as SERVER_NAME to perform a backup of all the configured servers.

--immediate-checkpoint

forces the initial checkpoint to be done as quickly as possible. Overrides value of the parameter immediate_checkpoint, if present in the configuration file.

--no-immediate-checkpoint

forces to wait for the checkpoint. Overrides value of the parameter immediate_checkpoint, if present in the configuration file.

--reuse-backup [INCREMENTAL_TYPE]

Overrides reuse_backup option behaviour. Possible values for INCREMENTAL_TYPE are:

off: do not reuse the last available backup;
copy: reuse the last available backup for a server and create a copy of the unchanged files (reduce backup time);
link: reuse the last available backup for a server and create a hard link of the unchanged files (reduce backup time and space);

link is the default target if --reuse-backup is used and INCREMENTAL_TYPE is not explicit.

--retry-times

Number of retries of base backup copy, after an error. Used during both backup and recovery operations. Overrides value of the parameter basebackup_retry_times, if present in the configuration file.

--no-retry

Same as --retry-times 0

--retry-sleep

Number of seconds of wait after a failed copy, before retrying. Used during both backup and recovery operations. Overrides value of the parameter basebackup_retry_sleep, if present in the configuration file.

-j, --jobs

Number of parallel workers to copy files during backup. Overrides value of the parameter parallel_jobs, if present in the configuration file.

--bwlimit KBPS

maximum transfer rate in kilobytes per second. A value of 0 means no limit. Overrides 'bandwidth_limit' configuration option. Default is undefined.

--wait, -w

wait for all required WAL files by the base backup to be archived

--wait-timeout

the time, in seconds, spent waiting for the required WAL files to be archived before timing out

check-backup SERVER_NAME BACKUP_ID

Make sure that all the required WAL files to check the consistency of a physical backup (that is, from the beginning to the end of the full backup) are correctly archived. This command is automatically invoked by the cron command and at the end of every backup operation.

check-wal-archive SERVER_NAME

Check that the WAL archive destination for SERVER_NAME is safe to use for a new PostgreSQL cluster. With no optional args (the default) this will pass if the WAL archive is empty and fail otherwise.

--timeline [TIMELINE]: A positive integer specifying the earliest timeline for which associated WALs should cause the check to fail. The check will pass if all WAL content in the archive relates to earlier timelines. If any WAL files are on this timeline or greater then the check will fail.

check SERVER_NAME

Show diagnostic information about SERVER_NAME, including: Ssh connection check, PostgreSQL version, configuration and backup directories, archiving process, streaming process, replication slots, etc. Specify all as SERVER_NAME to show diagnostic information about all the configured servers.

--nagios: Nagios plugin compatible output

cron

Perform maintenance tasks, such as enforcing retention policies or WAL files management.

--keep-descriptors: Keep the stdout and the stderr streams of the Barman subprocesses attached to this one. This is useful for Docker based installations.

delete SERVER_NAME BACKUP_ID

Delete the specified backup. Backup ID shortcuts section below for available shortcuts.

diagnose

Collect diagnostic information about the server where barman is installed and all the configured servers, including: global configuration, SSH version, Python version, rsync version, as well as current configuration and status of all servers.

get-wal [OPTIONS] SERVER_NAME WAL_NAME

Retrieve a WAL file from the xlog archive of a given server. By default, the requested WAL file, if found, is returned as uncompressed content to STDOUT. The following options allow users to change this behaviour:

-o OUTPUT_DIRECTORY: destination directory where the get-wal will deposit the requested WAL
-P, --partial: retrieve also partial WAL files (.partial)
-z: output will be compressed using gzip
-j: output will be compressed using bzip2
-p SIZE: peek from the WAL archive up to SIZE WAL files, starting from the requested one. 'SIZE' must be an integer >= 1. When invoked with this option, get-wal returns a list of zero to 'SIZE' WAL segment names, one per row.
-t, --test: test both the connection and the configuration of the requested PostgreSQL server in Barman for WAL retrieval. With this option, the 'WAL_NAME' mandatory argument is ignored.

keep SERVER_NAME BACKUP_ID

Flag the specified backup as an archival backup which should be kept forever, regardless of any retention policies in effect. See the Backup ID shortcuts section below for available shortcuts.

--target RECOVERY_TARGET

Specify the recovery target for the archival backup. Possible values for RECOVERY_TARGET are:

full: The backup can always be used to recover to the latest point in time. To achieve this, Barman will retain all WALs needed to ensure consistency of the backup and all subsequent WALs.
standalone: The backup can only be used to recover the server to its state at the time the backup was taken. Barman will only retain the WALs needed to ensure consistency of the backup.

--status

Report the archival status of the backup. This will either be the recovery target of full or standalone for archival backups or nokeep for backups which have not been flagged as archival.

--release

Release the keep flag from this backup. This will remove its archival status and make it available for deletion, either directly or by retention policy.

list-backups SERVER_NAME

Show available backups for SERVER_NAME. This command is useful to retrieve a backup ID. For example:

servername 20111104T102647 - Fri Nov  4 10:26:48 2011 - Size: 17.0 MiB - WAL Size: 100 B

In this case, *20111104T102647* is the backup ID.

list-files [OPTIONS] SERVER_NAME BACKUP_ID

List all the files in a particular backup, identified by the server name and the backup ID. See the Backup ID shortcuts section below for available shortcuts.

--target TARGET_TYPE

Possible values for TARGET_TYPE are:

data: lists just the data files;
standalone: lists the base backup files, including required WAL files;
wal: lists all the WAL files between the start of the base backup and the end of the log / the start of the following base backup (depending on whether the specified base backup is the most recent one available);
full: same as data + wal.

The default value is standalone.

list-servers

Show all the configured servers, and their descriptions.

put-wal [OPTIONS] SERVER_NAME

Receive a WAL file from a remote server and securely store it into the SERVER_NAME incoming directory. The WAL file is retrieved from the STDIN, and must be encapsulated in a tar stream together with a MD5SUMS file to validate it. This command is meant to be invoked through SSH from a remote barman-wal-archive utility (part of barman-cli package). Do not use this command directly unless you take full responsibility of the content of files.

-t, --test: test both the connection and the configuration of the requested PostgreSQL server in Barman to make sure it is ready to receive WAL files.

rebuild-xlogdb SERVER_NAME

Perform a rebuild of the WAL file metadata for SERVER_NAME (or every server, using the all shortcut) guessing it from the disk content. The metadata of the WAL archive is contained in the xlog.db file, and every Barman server has its own copy.

receive-wal SERVER_NAME

Start the stream of transaction logs for a server. The process relies on pg_receivewal/pg_receivexlog to receive WAL files from the PostgreSQL servers through the streaming protocol.

--stop: stop the receive-wal process for the server
--reset: reset the status of receive-wal, restarting the streaming from the current WAL file of the server
--create-slot: create the physical replication slot configured with the slot_name configuration parameter
--drop-slot: drop the physical replication slot configured with the slot_name configuration parameter

recover [OPTIONS] SERVER_NAME BACKUP_ID DESTINATION_DIRECTORY

Recover a backup in a given directory (local or remote, depending on the --remote-ssh-command option settings). See the Backup ID shortcuts section below for available shortcuts.

--target-tli TARGET_TLI

Recover the specified timeline. The special values current and latest can be used in addition to a numeric timeline ID. The default behaviour for PostgreSQL versions >= 12 is to recover to the latest timeline in the WAL archive. The default for PostgreSQL versions < 12 is to recover along the timeline which was current when the backup was taken.

--target-time TARGET_TIME

Recover to the specified time.

You can use any valid unambiguous representation (e.g: "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS.mmm").

--target-xid TARGET_XID

Recover to the specified transaction ID.

--target-lsn TARGET_LSN

Recover to the specified LSN (Log Sequence Number). Requires PostgreSQL 10 or above.

--target-name TARGET_NAME

Recover to the named restore point previously created with the pg_create_restore_point(name) (for PostgreSQL 9.1 and above users).

--target-immediate

Recover ends when a consistent state is reached (end of the base backup)

--exclusive

Set target (time, XID or LSN) to be non inclusive.

--target-action ACTION

Trigger the specified action once the recovery target is reached. Possible actions are: pause (PostgreSQL 9.1 and above), shutdown (PostgreSQL 9.5 and above) and promote (ditto). This option requires a target to be defined, with one of the above options.

--tablespace NAME:LOCATION

Specify tablespace relocation rule.

--remote-ssh-command SSH_COMMAND

This options activates remote recovery, by specifying the secure shell command to be launched on a remote host. This is the equivalent of the "ssh_command" server option in the configuration file for remote recovery. Example: 'ssh postgres@db2'.

--retry-times RETRY_TIMES

Number of retries of data copy during base backup after an error. Overrides value of the parameter basebackup_retry_times, if present in the configuration file.

--no-retry

Same as --retry-times 0

--retry-sleep

Number of seconds of wait after a failed copy, before retrying. Overrides value of the parameter basebackup_retry_sleep, if present in the configuration file.

--bwlimit KBPS

maximum transfer rate in kilobytes per second. A value of 0 means no limit. Overrides 'bandwidth_limit' configuration option. Default is undefined.

-j , --jobs

Number of parallel workers to copy files during recovery. Overrides value of the parameter parallel_jobs, if present in the configuration file. Works only for servers configured through rsync/SSH.

--get-wal, --no-get-wal

Enable/Disable usage of get-wal for WAL fetching during recovery. Default is based on recovery_options setting.

--network-compression, --no-network-compression

Enable/Disable network compression during remote recovery. Default is based on network_compression configuration setting.

--standby-mode

Specifies whether to start the PostgreSQL server as a standby. Default is undefined.

--recovery-staging-path STAGING_PATH

A path to a location on the recovery host (either the barman server or a remote host if --remote-ssh-command is also used) where files for a compressed backup will be staged before being uncompressed to the destination directory. Backups will be staged in their own directory within the staging path according to the following naming convention: "barman-staging-SERVER_NAME-BACKUP_ID". The staging directory within the staging path will be removed at the end of the recovery process. This option is required when recovering from compressed backups and has no effect otherwise.

replication-status [OPTIONS] SERVER_NAME

Shows live information and status of any streaming client attached to the given server (or servers). Default behaviour can be changed through the following options:

--minimal

machine readable output (default: False)

--target TARGET_TYPE

Possible values for TARGET_TYPE are:

hot-standby: lists only hot standby servers
wal-streamer: lists only WAL streaming clients, such as pg_receivewal
all: any streaming client (default)

show-backup SERVER_NAME BACKUP_ID

Show detailed information about a particular backup, identified by the server name and the backup ID. See the Backup ID shortcuts section below for available shortcuts. For example:

Backup 20150828T130001:
  Server Name            : quagmire
  Status                 : DONE
  PostgreSQL Version     : 90402
  PGDATA directory       : /srv/postgresql/9.4/main/data

  Base backup information:
    Disk usage           : 12.4 TiB (12.4 TiB with WALs)
    Incremental size     : 4.9 TiB (-60.02%)
    Timeline             : 1
    Begin WAL            : 0000000100000CFD000000AD
    End WAL              : 0000000100000D0D00000008
    WAL number           : 3932
    WAL compression ratio: 79.51%
    Begin time           : 2015-08-28 13:00:01.633925+00:00
    End time             : 2015-08-29 10:27:06.522846+00:00
    Begin Offset         : 1575048
    End Offset           : 13853016
    Begin XLOG           : CFD/AD180888
    End XLOG             : D0D/8D36158

  WAL information:
    No of files          : 35039
    Disk usage           : 121.5 GiB
    WAL rate             : 275.50/hour
    Compression ratio    : 77.81%
    Last available       : 0000000100000D95000000E7

  Catalog information:
    Retention Policy     : not enforced
    Previous Backup      : 20150821T130001
    Next Backup          : - (this is the latest base backup)

show-servers SERVER_NAME: Show information about SERVER_NAME, including: conninfo, backup_directory, wals_directory and many more. Specify all as SERVER_NAME to show information about all the configured servers.
status SERVER_NAME: Show information about the status of a server, including: number of available backups, archive_command, archive_status and many more. For example:

Server quagmire:
  Description: The Giggity database
  Passive node: False
  PostgreSQL version: 9.3.9
  pgespresso extension: Not available
  PostgreSQL Data directory: /srv/postgresql/9.3/data
  PostgreSQL 'archive_command' setting: rsync -a %p barman@backup:/var/lib/barman/quagmire/incoming
  Last archived WAL: 0000000100003103000000AD
  Current WAL segment: 0000000100003103000000AE
  Retention policies: enforced (mode: auto, retention: REDUNDANCY 2, WAL retention: MAIN)
  No. of available backups: 2
  First available backup: 20150908T003001
  Last available backup: 20150909T003001
  Minimum redundancy requirements: satisfied (2/1)

switch-wal SERVER_NAME

Execute pg_switch_wal() on the target server (from PostgreSQL 10), or pg_switch_xlog (for PostgreSQL 8.3 to 9.6).

--force: Forces the switch by executing CHECKPOINT before pg_switch_xlog(). IMPORTANT: executing a CHECKPOINT might increase I/O load on a PostgreSQL server. Use this option with care.
--archive: Wait for one xlog file to be archived. If after a defined amount of time (default: 30 seconds) no xlog file is archived, Barman will terminate with failure exit code. Available also on standby servers.
--archive-timeout TIMEOUT: Specifies the amount of time in seconds (default: 30 seconds) the archiver will wait for a new xlog file to be archived before timing out. Available also on standby servers.

switch-xlog SERVER_NAME

Alias for switch-wal (kept for back-compatibility)

sync-backup SERVER_NAME BACKUP_ID

Command used for the synchronisation of a passive node with its primary. Executes a copy of all the files of a BACKUP_ID that is present on SERVER_NAME node. This command is available only for passive nodes, and uses the primary_ssh_command option to establish a secure connection with the primary node.

sync-info SERVER_NAME [LAST_WAL [LAST_POSITION]]

Collect information regarding the current status of a Barman server, to be used for synchronisation purposes. Returns a JSON output representing SERVER_NAME, that contains: all the successfully finished backup, all the archived WAL files, the configuration, last WAL file been read from the xlog.db and the position in the file.

LAST_WAL: tells sync-info to skip any WAL file previous to that (incremental synchronisation)
LAST_POSITION: hint for quickly positioning in the xlog.db file (incremental synchronisation)

sync-wals SERVER_NAME

Command used for the synchronisation of a passive node with its primary. Executes a copy of all the archived WAL files that are present on SERVER_NAME node. This command is available only for passive nodes, and uses the primary_ssh_command option to establish a secure connection with the primary node.

BACKUP ID SHORTCUTS

Rather than using the timestamp backup ID, you can use any of the following shortcuts/aliases to identity a backup for a given server:

first: Oldest available backup for that server, in chronological order.
last: Latest available backup for that server, in chronological order.
latest: same ast last.
oldest: same ast first.
last-failed: Latest failed backup, in chronological order.

EXIT STATUS

0: Success
Not zero: Failure

BUGS

Barman has been extensively tested, and is currently being used in several production environments. However, we cannot exclude the presence of bugs.

Any bug can be reported via the Github bug tracker. Along with the bug submission, users can provide developers with diagnostics information obtained through the barman diagnose command.

AUTHORS

Barman maintainers (in alphabetical order):

Abhijit Menon-Sen
Jane Threefoot
Michael Wallace

Past contributors (in alphabetical order):

Anna Bellandi (QA/testing)
Britt Cole (documentation reviewer)
Carlo Ascani (developer)
Francesco Canovai (QA/testing)
Gabriele Bartolini (architect)
Gianni Ciolli (QA/testing)
Giulio Calacoci (developer)
Giuseppe Broccolo (developer)
Jonathan Battiato (QA/testing)
Leonardo Cecchi (developer)
Marco Nenciarini (project leader)
Niccolò Fei (QA/testing)
Rubens Souza (QA/testing)
Stefano Bianucci (developer)

RESOURCES

Homepage: https://www.pgbarman.org/
Documentation: https://docs.pgbarman.org/
Professional support: https://www.enterprisedb.com/

COPYING

Barman is the property of EnterpriseDB UK Limited and its code is distributed under GNU General Public License v3.