Ask HN: PostgreSQL and other server backup services?

11 points by ProblemFactory 11y ago ↗ HN

Hi all,

I'm looking to back up user-generated data on a server. This includes a PostgreSQL database and a few directories with uploaded files. Both are fairly small for now (<1GB).

I could hack something up with cron, pg_dump and rsync, but would rather prefer paying for a hosted service that knows what they are doing. Surprisingly, all the backup services I've found so far seem to be for home desktops, but this must be a common need for everyone that runs servers?

If I do have to set it up myself, then any suggestions about best practices are of course also welcome.

6 comments

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benologist 11y ago ↗

Do you just want backups or hosted/managed? Heroku have a huge postgres platform with backups, forking!, etc - https://www.heroku.com/postgres

ProblemFactory 11y ago ↗

Thanks for the suggestion. However, for now I'd like to avoid building my entire app "the Heroku way", and keep the PostgreSQL server hosted on the same server or at least the same network as the rest of the app. But you are right in that perhaps a fully managed PostgreSQL server is the way to go for reliability.

benologist 11y ago ↗

I don't think you're required to move anything, when you create an app and add the database you're given the db credentials and can access it from whatever you want and it scales/bills independently from the hosting platform.

There's also AWS: http://aws.amazon.com/rds/postgresql/

joshmn 11y ago ↗

https://github.com/meskyanichi/backup might be a good solution. Even if you don't know Ruby, it's amazingly straightforward.

Edit: http://learnaholic.me/2012/10/10/backing-up-postgresql-with-... for scheduling, too (if you want to leave cron alone)

ProblemFactory 11y ago ↗

Thanks, that looks very useful!

knurdle 11y ago ↗

https://www.jungledisk.com/

Their interface isn't the greatest but it works.