Back up data
YugabyteDB is designed for reliability, providing high fault tolerance and redundancy. Many YSQL applications do not require backups, except for disaster recovery needs or to create YugabyteDB clusters for development and testing. When you need backups, YugabyteDB provides two utilities, ysql_dump and ysql_dumpall, to back up databases.
Back up a single database
The YugabyteDB ysql_dump backup utility, derived from PostgreSQL pg_dump,
can be used to extract a single YugabyteDB database into a SQL script file. ysql_dump will make a consistent backup for a database, even if it is being used concurrently, and does not block other database users (readers or writers).
The SQL script dump is a plain-text file that include the SQL statements required to restore the database to the state it was in at the time it was saved. To restore a database from the SQL script file, use ysqlsh. For details on restoring an individual YugabyteDB database, see Restore data.
To back up all of the databases in a YugabyteDB universe or cluster, including metadata (roles, sequences, and other database objects), use the ysql_dumpall utility.
To back up a single database, from your YugabyteDB home directory, run the ysql_dump command, specifying the database to be backed up.
$ ./postgres/bin/ysql_dump -d <db-name> > <backup-file>
- db-name: The name of the database to be backed up.
- backup-file: The path to the backup file.
In the following example, the database mydb is extracted to the backup file mydb-dump.sql, located in a backup directory.
$ ./postgres/bin/ysql_dump -d mydb > ../backup/mydb-dump.sql
For details on this utility and the optional parameters, see ysql_dump.
Back up all databases
Use the ysql_dumpall backup utility to write out (or "dump") all YugabyteDB databases of a universe into a single SQL script file. The script file is a plain-text file that contains SQL statements that can be used as input to ysqlsh to restore the databases. ysql_dumpall uses calls to ysql_dump for each database in the universe. Unlike the ysql_dump utility, the ysql_dumpall utility backs up all database objects, including roles, databases, schemas, tables, indexes, triggers, functions, constraints, ownerships, and privileges.
Note
If you have enabled password authentication, you will be prompted for a password as each database in your YugabyteDB universe is backed up becauseysql_dumpall connects once per database. To have your backup proceed uninterrupted, you can use a password file (~/.pgpass).
To back up all databases, from your YugabyteDB home directory, run the ysql_dumpall utility command.
$ ./postgres/bin/ysql_dumpall > <backup-file>
- backup-file: The path to the backup file.
In the following example, all databases and database objects are backed up to the specified file.
$ ./postgres/bin/ysql_dumpall > ../backup/yb-dumpall.sql
Options for the ysql_dumpall utility can be used to limit backups to roles only (--roles-only), all database objects except the data (--schema-only), or other options. For details about the utility's available options, see ysql_dumpall.