EcoSpecies-Atlas/docs/postgres-backup.md

PostgreSQL Backup Notes

This note applies to deployments that use the PostgreSQL volume defined by the Compose stack, including the Traefik deployment variant.

What Needs Backup

At minimum, back up:

• the PostgreSQL data volume
• the deployment env file that contains the database credentials

For the Traefik deployment variant, that usually means:

• the Docker volume postgres_data
• docs/docker-compose-traefik.env

Logical Backup

From the repository root, create a SQL dump with:

./scripts/backup-postgres.sh

To write to a specific file:

./scripts/backup-postgres.sh /path/to/ecospecies-backup.sql

Restore From Logical Backup

Restore a SQL dump with:

./scripts/restore-postgres.sh /path/to/ecospecies-backup.sql

Volume-Level Backup

If the host backup system can snapshot Docker volumes safely, include the PostgreSQL volume in that schedule. A volume snapshot is useful for full recovery, but a logical dump is still recommended for portability and validation.

Operational Guidance

• Run backups on a schedule instead of relying on ad hoc dumps.
• Test restore procedures before relying on the backup policy.
• Keep backup artifacts outside the live Docker host when possible.
• The backup and restore scripts default to docs/docker-compose-traefik.env and docs/docker-compose-traefik.yml, but both can be overridden with ECOSPECIES_ENV_FILE and ECOSPECIES_COMPOSE_FILE.