BARMAN(5)

NAME
barman - backup and recovery manager for PostgreSQL

CONFIGURATION FILE LOCATIONS

The system-level Barman configuration file is located at

    /etc/barman.conf

or

    /etc/barman/barman.conf

and is overridden on a per-user level by

    $HOME/.barman.conf

CONFIGURATION FILE SYNTAX

The Barman configuration file is a plain INI file. There is a general section called [barman] and a section [servername] for each server you want to backup. Rows starting with ; are comments.

CONFIGURATION FILE DIRECTORY

Barman supports the inclusion of multiple configuration files, through the configuration_files_directory option. Included files must contain only server specifications, not global configurations. If the value of configuration_files_directory is a directory, Barman reads all files with .conf extension that exist in that folder. For example, if you set it to /etc/barman.d, you can specify your PostgreSQL servers placing each section in a separate .conf file inside the /etc/barman.d folder.

OPTIONS

active
    Ignored. Server.

description
    A human readable description of a server. Server.

ssh_command
    Command used by Barman to login to the Postgres server via ssh. Server.

conninfo
    Connection string used by Barman to connect to the Postgres server. Server.

basebackups_directory
    Directory where base backups will be placed. Global/Server.

wals_directory
    Directory which contains WAL files. Global/Server.

incoming_wals_directory
    Directory where incoming WAL files are archived into. Global/Server.

lock_file
    Lock file for a backup in progress. Global/Server.

log_file
    Location of Barman’s log file. Global.

log_level
    Level of logging (DEBUG, INFO, WARNING, ERROR, CRITICAL). Global.

custom_compression_filter
    Compression algorithm applied to WAL files. Global/Server.

custom_decompression_filter
    Decompression algorithm applied to compressed WAL files; this must match the compression algorithm. Global/Server.

pre_backup_script
    Hook script launched before a base backup. Global/Server.

post_backup_script
    Hook script launched after a base backup. Global/Server.

pre_archive_script
    Hook script launched before a base backup. Global/Server.

post_archive_script
    Hook script launched after a base backup. Global/Server.

minimum_redundancy
    Minimum number of backups to be retained. Default 0. Global/Server.

retention_policy
    Policy for retention of periodic backups and archive logs. If left empty, retention policies are not enforced. For redundancy based retention policy use "REDUNDANCY i" (where i is an integer > 0 and defines the number of backups to retain). For recovery window retention policy use "RECOVERY WINDOW OF i DAYS" or "RECOVERY WINDOW OF i WEEKS" or "RECOVERY WINDOW OF i MONTHS" where i is a positive integer representing, specifically, the number of days, weeks or months to retain your backups. For more detailed information, refer to the official documentation. Default value is empty. Global/Server.

wal_retention_policy
    Policy for retention of archive logs (WAL files). Currently only "MAIN" is available. Global/Server.

retention_policy_mode
    Currently only "auto" is implemented. Global/Server.

bandwidth_limit
    This option allows you to specify a maximum transfer rate in kilobytes per second. A value of zero specifies no limit (default). Global/Server.

tablespace_bandwidth_limit
    This option allows you to specify a maximum transfer rate in kilobytes per second, by specifying a comma separated list of tablespaces (pairs TBNAME:BWLIMIT). A value of zero specifies no limit (default). Global/Server.

immediate_checkpoint
    This option allows you to control the way PostgreSQL handles checkpoint at the start of the backup. If set to false (default), the I/O workload for the checkpoint will be limited, according to the checkpoint_completion_target setting on the PostgreSQL server. If set to true, an immediate checkpoint will be requested, meaning that PostgreSQL will complete the checkpoint as soon as possible. Global/Server.

network_compression
    This option allows you to enable data compression for network transfers. If set to false (default), no compression is used. If set to true, compression is enabled, reducing network usage. Global/Server.

backup_options
    This option allows you to enable to control the way PostgreSQL handles backups: If set to exclusive_backup (default), barman backup executes backup operations using the standard exclusive backup approach (technically through pg_start_backup/pg_stop_backup). If set to concurrent_backup, Barman requires the pgespresso module to be installed on the PostgreSQL server (this allows you to perform a backup from a standby server). Global/Server.

last_backup_maximum_age
    This option identifies a time frame that must contain the latest backup. If the latest backup is older than the time frame, barman check command will report an error to the user. If empty (default), latest backup is always considered valid. Syntax for this option is: "i (DAYS | WEEKS | MONTHS)" where i is a integer greater than zero, representing the number of days | weeks | months of the time frame. Global/Server.

basebackup_retry_times
    Number of retries of base backup copy, after an error. Used during both backup and recovery operations. Positive integer, default 0. Global/Server.

basebackup_retry_sleep
    Number of seconds of wait after a failed copy, before retrying Used during both backup and recovery operations. Positive integer, default 30. Global/Server.

reuse_backup
    This option controls incremental backup support. Global/Server. Possible values are:

        • off - disabled (default);

        • 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). Requires operating system and file system support for hard links.

HOOK SCRIPTS

The script definition is passed to a shell and can return any exit code.

The shell environment will contain the following variables:

BARMAN_CONFIGURATION
    configuration file used by barman

BARMAN_ERROR
    error message, if any (only for the post phase)

BARMAN_PHASE
    pre or post

BARMAN_SERVER
    name of the server

Backup scripts specific variables:

BARMAN_BACKUP_DIR
    backup destination directory

BARMAN_BACKUP_ID
    ID of the backup

BARMAN_PREVIOUS_ID
    ID of the previous backup (if present)

BARMAN_STATUS
    status of the backup

BARMAN_VERSION
    version of Barman

Archive scripts specific variables:

BARMAN_SEGMENT
    name of the WAL file

BARMAN_FILE
    full path of the WAL file

BARMAN_SIZE
    size of the WAL file

BARMAN_TIMESTAMP
    WAL file timestamp

BARMAN_COMPRESSION
    type of compression used for the WAL file

No check is performed on the exit code of the script. The result will be simply written in the log file.

EXAMPLE

Example of the configuration file:

    [barman]
    ; Main directory
    barman_home = /var/lib/barman
    ; System user
    barman_user = barman
    ; Log location
    log_file = /var/log/barman/barman.log
    ; Default compression level
    ;compression = gzip
    ; Incremental backup
    reuse_backup = link
    ; 'main' PostgreSQL Server configuration
    [main]
    ; Human readable description
    description =  "Main PostgreSQL Database"
    ; SSH options
    ssh_command = ssh postgres@pg
    ; PostgreSQL connection string
    conninfo = host=pg user=postgres
    ; Minimum number of required backups (redundancy)
    minimum_redundancy = 1
    ; Retention policy (based on redundancy)
    retention_policy = REDUNDANCY 2

AUTHORS

In alphabetical order:

    • Gabriele Bartolini <gabriele.bartolini@2ndquadrant.it> (core team, project leader)

    • Giuseppe Broccolo <giuseppe.broccolo@2ndquadrant.it> (core team, QA/testing)

    • Giulio Calacoci <giulio.calacoci@2ndquadrant.it> (core team, developer)

    • Francesco Canovai <francesco.canovai@2ndquadrant.it> (core team, QA/testing)

    • Marco Nenciarini <marco.nenciarini@2ndquadrant.it> (core team, team leader)

Past contributors:

    • Carlo Ascani

RESOURCES

    • Homepage: http://www.pgbarman.org/

    • Documentation: http://docs.pgbarman.org/

COPYING

Barman is the exclusive property of 2ndQuadrant Italia and its code is distributed under GNU General Public License v3.

Copyright © 2011-2015 2ndQuadrant Italia (Devise.IT S.r.l.) - http://www.2ndQuadrant.it/.