Multiple storages for backups

Version added: 2.6.0

A good practice in a backup policy is to follow the 3-to-1 rule: have 3 copies of data stored on 2 different storages and have 1 copy kept offsite. Instead of transferring data to multiple storages, you can configure those storages and have PBM make backups to them directly, at different schedules.

For example, you can configure backups as follows:

• Make full physical backups with point-in-time recovery enabled weekly and store them on AWS S3 bucket,
• Make incremental backups daily on another storage.
• Make EBS snapshots of the whole database monthly and store it on an external offsite server.

This ability to define multiple storages for backups brings the following benefits:

• Saves costs on data transfer in case of cloud storages
• Increases effectiveness of following your organization’s backup policy either via your own applications and tools interfaced with PBM or via Percona Everest

Configuration profiles

By default, PBM stores backups and point-in-time recovery oplog slices to the remote backup storage which you defined in the configuration file during the initial setup. This is the main backup storage.

To make backups to additional – external backup storages, a concept of a configuration profile is introduced. A configuration profile is a file that stores only the configuration for an external backup storage.

Select a storage with –profile

When multiple storages are configured, PBM commands can operate on:

• The main storage (configured in PBM as the default backup destination).

• An external storage defined as a configuration profile.

To choose which storage a command should use, pass the --profile flag.

Commands that support --profile

These PBM commands accept --profile flag:

• pbm backup

• pbm delete-backup

• pbm cleanup

• pbm list

• pbm status

If you do not specify --profile, PBM uses the command’s default behavior.

Allowed values

You can set --profile to one of the following:

• --profile=main → Use the main storage.

• --profile=<profile_name> → Use an external storage identified by an existing configuration profile name.

Examples

# List backups from main storage
pbm list --profile=main

# List backups from an external storage profile
pbm list --profile=minio

# Show status using an external storage profile
pbm status --profile=minio

# Write a backup to an external storage profile
pbm backup -t physical --profile=minio --wait

Reserved names and profile naming rules

• main is a reserved CLI keyword that always refers to the main storage.
• PBM CLI will reject empty string ("") and main as profile names.

Removing a legacy profile named main

If a profile named main already exists from older configurations, rename it by removing and re-adding it under a different name. For compatibility, the command below treats main as a profile name (not the reserved keyword):

pbm profile remove "main"
pbm profile add "different_name" /path/to/config.yaml

After renaming, use --profile=main to reference the main storage, and --profile=<different_name> to reference the external profile.

Example: Configuration profile

minio.yaml

storage:
  type: s3
  s3:
    endpointUrl: "http://localhost:9000"
    bucket: mybucket
    region: my-region
    credentials:
        access_key_id: myaccesskey
        secret_access_key: mysecretkey

To upload the configuration profile to PBM, use the pbm profile add command and specify the path to the profile.

pbm profile add <profile_name> /path/to/profile.yaml

To show the information about the external backup storage, use the pbm profile show command:

pbm profile show <profile_name>

See the full list of the configuration profile management commands in the pbm commands reference.

Make a backup to an external storage

To make a backup to an external backup storage, pass the profile name with the --profile flag for the pbm backup command. For example, to run a physical backup and store it in the MinIO storage defined via the minio configuration profile, run the following command:

pbm backup -t physical --profile=minio --wait 

Sample output

Starting backup '2024-06-25T11:25:30Z'....Backup '2024-06-25T11:25:30Z' to remote store 's3://http://minio:9000/backup' has started

You can make any type of backups except snapshot-based ones on an external storage.

Note that point-in-time recovery oplog slicing is not stopped automatically for backups made to an external storage. Thus, PBM saves oplog chunks related to such backups on both the main and the external storages.

When you make incremental backups, make sure to keep the whole backup chain on the same storage. To switch the backup storage, you must make a new base backup on it to start the new incremental chain.

Restore from an external storage

Before you start, make sure that pbm-agents have the read permissions to backups on the remote storage(s). Also, make all preparations for the restore.

1. List backups by running the pbm list or pbm status commands.

   pbm list
   

   The output shows the backup names and timestamps. External backups are marked with an asterisk:

   Sample output

   Backup snapshots:
     2024-06-25T10:53:57Z <logical> [restore_to_time: 2024-06-25T10:54:02Z]
     2024-06-25T10:54:55Z <logical, *> [restore_to_time: 2024-06-25T10:55:02Z]
     2024-06-25T10:57:49Z <logical, *> [restore_to_time: 2024-06-25T10:57:56Z]
   
   PITR <on>:
     2024-06-25T10:54:03Z - 2024-06-25T10:57:51Z
   

2. To make a point-in-time restore, you must explicitly pass the backup name for the pbm restore command:

   pbm-restore --time=<timestamp> --base-snapshot <backup-name>
   

3. After the restore is complete, do the required post-restore steps depending on the restore type.

4. Make a fresh backup to serve as the new base for future restores.

Delete backups

You can delete backups from an external storage only by name.

Run the pbm delete command and pass the backup name:

pbm delete-backup 2024-06-25T10:54:55Z

Implementation specifics

1. You can make backups of any type except snapshot-based ones on the external storage.
2. To start point-in-time recovery oplog slicing, you must make a backup on the main storage. A backup from an external storage is not considered a valid base backup for oplog slicing.
3. PBM saves point-in-time recovery oplog ranges only on the main storage. Backups are saved on the storage that you define when starting a backup.
4. Backup process on the external storage doesn’t stop point-in-time recovery oplog slicing on the main storage. Thus, PBM saves oplog chunks related to such backups on both the main and the external storages
5. The whole incremental chain must be stored on the same storage. To change the storage for incremental backups, you must start a new backup chain with the incremental base backup on the new storage.
6. To restore from a backup on external storage, pbm-agents must have read permissions on it.
7. To make a point-in-time recovery, you must specify the backup name via the --base-snapshot flag. Without it, PBM searches for the base backup on the main storage.
8. You can delete backups from external storages only by name using the pbm delete-backup <backup-name> command.
9. You can delete backups older than the specified time using the pbm delete-backup --older-than <time> or pbm cleanup --older-than <time> commands only from the main storage.

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Last update: February 26, 2026
Created: February 26, 2026