Re: VM-Ware Backup of VM safe?

On 9/20/17 7:36 AM, PT wrote:
> On Wed, 20 Sep 2017 10:03:15 +0200
> Thomas Güttler <guettliml(at)thomas-guettler(dot)de> wrote:
>
>> We run a PostgreSQL 9.6 server in a virtual machine.
>>
>> The virtual machine is managed by the customer.
>>
>> He does backup the VM.
>>
>> Is this enough, is this safe?
>
> There are so many variables involved with doing that ... I don't think
> anyone can reliably answer that question.
>
> I recommend you put together a periodic test schedule where you restore
> a machine from the backup and ensure everything works. To be honest, you
> should be doing that anyway.

Restore testing is as must, but a bad backup scheme can result in subtle
errors that are very hard to detect.

If you can't find specific documentation that your VM backup solution is
safe to use with a DBMS then it is almost certainly not safe. Even if
it says it is there are potential gotchas. For example, the backup may
not be consistent if you are using multiple volumes.

In addition, data loss on restore will be greater if there is no WAL
archive to play forward from.

--
-David
david(at)pgmasters(dot)net