---
title: "Configure Backup"
description: "Configure multi-cloud storage backends, WAL streaming, and automated snapshot schedules using Apache OpenDAL."
---

> Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://dreamoutbox.github.io/pgvisor/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Configure Backup

**PgVisor** features continuous backup archiving and Point-In-Time-Recovery (PITR) powered by **Apache OpenDAL**, providing a unified storage interface across cloud providers and on-premise object stores.

---

## Supported Storage Backends

Currently, PgVisor **officially supports S3-compatible storage backends** via Apache OpenDAL:

- **AWS S3**: Amazon Simple Storage Service
- **MinIO**: High-performance S3-compatible self-hosted object storage
- **Cloudflare R2**: S3-compatible zero-egress cloud object storage
- **RustFS / S3 Compatible**: Any standard S3 API provider (Wasabi, DigitalOcean Spaces, Ceph)

---

## Planned Storage Backends (TODO)

Support for the following native storage drivers is on the project roadmap:

- [ ] **Google Cloud Storage (GCS)** (native driver)
- [ ] **Azure Blob Storage** (native driver)
- [ ] **Local / Shared POSIX Filesystem** (`fs` driver)
- [ ] **SFTP / Network Mounts**

---

## Environment Variables Reference

Configure backup storage by defining these environment variables across your cluster nodes:

| Variable | Required | Default | Description |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| `PGVISOR_STORAGE_BACKEND` | Yes | `s3` | Storage backend type: `s3`, `gcs`, `azblob`, `fs` |
| `PGVISOR_STORAGE_BUCKET` | Yes | `pgvisor-backups` | Target bucket or container name |
| `PGVISOR_STORAGE_ENDPOINT` | No | — | Custom API endpoint (e.g. `http://minio:9000` or Cloudflare R2 URL) |
| `PGVISOR_STORAGE_REGION` | No | `us-east-1` | Cloud storage region |
| `PGVISOR_STORAGE_ACCESS_KEY_ID` | Conditional | — | Access key / Client ID for authentication |
| `PGVISOR_STORAGE_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY`| Conditional | — | Secret access key for authentication |
| `PGVISOR_STORAGE_ROOT` | No | `/` | Root path prefix within the storage bucket |

---

## Storage Provider Examples

### MinIO (Local / On-Premise)

```yaml
environment:
  - PGVISOR_STORAGE_BACKEND=s3
  - PGVISOR_STORAGE_BUCKET=pgvisor-backups
  - PGVISOR_STORAGE_ENDPOINT=http://minio:9000
  - PGVISOR_STORAGE_REGION=us-east-1
  - PGVISOR_STORAGE_ACCESS_KEY_ID=minioadmin
  - PGVISOR_STORAGE_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=minioadmin
```

### AWS S3

```yaml
environment:
  - PGVISOR_STORAGE_BACKEND=s3
  - PGVISOR_STORAGE_BUCKET=my-production-pgvisor-backups
  - PGVISOR_STORAGE_REGION=us-west-2
  - PGVISOR_STORAGE_ACCESS_KEY_ID=AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE
  - PGVISOR_STORAGE_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=wJalrXUtnFEMI/K7MDENG/bPxRfiCYEXAMPLEKEY
```

### Cloudflare R2

```yaml
environment:
  - PGVISOR_STORAGE_BACKEND=s3
  - PGVISOR_STORAGE_BUCKET=pgvisor-r2-backups
  - PGVISOR_STORAGE_ENDPOINT=https://<account-id>.r2.cloudflarestorage.com
  - PGVISOR_STORAGE_REGION=auto
  - PGVISOR_STORAGE_ACCESS_KEY_ID=<r2-access-key-id>
  - PGVISOR_STORAGE_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=<r2-secret-access-key>
```

### RustFS / Generic S3

```yaml
environment:
  - PGVISOR_STORAGE_BACKEND=s3
  - PGVISOR_STORAGE_BUCKET=pgvisor-backups
  - PGVISOR_STORAGE_ENDPOINT=http://rustfs:9000
  - PGVISOR_STORAGE_REGION=us-east-1
  - PGVISOR_STORAGE_ACCESS_KEY_ID=rustfsadmin
  - PGVISOR_STORAGE_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=rustfsadmin
```

---

## WAL Archiving Configuration

PostgreSQL WAL (Write-Ahead Logging) archiving is automatically configured by the sidecar supervisor:

```ini
# Auto-generated inside postgresql.conf by pgvisor-sidecar
wal_level = replica
archive_mode = on
archive_command = 'pgvisor-sidecar archive %p %f'
archive_timeout = 300
```

- `%p`: The absolute filepath to the completed 16MB WAL segment on disk.
- `%f`: The filename of the segment (e.g., `000000010000000000000001`).
- `archive_timeout`: Ensures partially filled WAL segments are rotated and archived at least every 300 seconds, limiting maximum recovery point objective (RPO) during quiet periods.

---

## Scheduling & Retention Policies

PgVisor includes a built-in backup scheduler to automate continuous physical basebackups and retention cleanup:

| Variable | Default | Description |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| `PGVISOR_BACKUP_INCREMENTAL_INTERVAL_SECS` | `3600` | Frequency in seconds for incremental snapshot checks (default 1 hour). |
| `PGVISOR_BACKUP_FULL_HOUR_UTC` | `1` | Hour in UTC when daily full physical basebackup runs (01:00 UTC). |
| `PGVISOR_BACKUP_RETENTION_DAYS` | `7` | Retention window in days. Snapshots and obsolete WAL segments older than this threshold are automatically pruned. |

> **Storage Hierarchy**
>
> All backup artifacts are stored under the cluster identifier in your bucket:
>
> ```text
pgvisor-backups/
└── clusters/
└── default-cluster/
    ├── snapshots/
    │   ├── snapshot-2026-09-17T010000Z.tar.gz
    │   └── snapshot-2026-09-18T010000Z.tar.gz
    ├── wal/
    │   ├── 000000010000000000000001
    │   ├── 000000010000000000000002
    │   └── ...
    └── manifest.json
```

Source: https://dreamoutbox.github.io/pgvisor/configure-backup/index.mdx