BACKUP keyword

Enterprise—

Incremental backups to object storage, with restore from any retained backup.

Learn more

BACKUP - start and abort incremental backups to object storage.

Looking for a detailed guide on backup creation and restoration? Check out our Backup and Restore guide!

Syntax

BACKUP DATABASE;

BACKUP ABORT;

BACKUP DATABASE

Starts a new incremental backup. Returns immediately with the backup timestamp. The backup runs asynchronously in the background.

BACKUP ABORT

Aborts a running backup. Returns a single row:

Column	Type	Description
status	VARCHAR	aborted or not running
backup_id	TIMESTAMP	Timestamp of aborted backup, or NULL

Example when backup was running:

status	backup_id
aborted	2024-01-15T10:30:00.000000Z

Example when no backup was running:

status	backup_id
not running	NULL

Monitoring backups

Use the backups() table function to monitor backup progress and history:

SELECT * FROM backups();

Returns:

Column	Type	Description
status	VARCHAR	Current status (see below)
progress_percent	INT	Completion percentage (0-100)
start_ts	TIMESTAMP	When the backup started
end_ts	TIMESTAMP	When the backup completed (NULL if running)
backup_error	VARCHAR	Error message if backup failed
cleanup_error	VARCHAR	Error message if cleanup failed

Status values

backup in progress, backup complete, backup failed, cleanup in progress, cleanup complete, cleanup failed

See status values in the Backup guide for descriptions and recommended actions.

Examples

Start a backup:

BACKUP DATABASE;

Result:

backup_timestamp
2024-08-24T12:34:56.789123Z

Check current backup status:

SELECT status, progress_percent FROM backups() ORDER BY start_ts DESC LIMIT 1;

Configuration

Backups must be configured before use. At minimum:

backup.enabled=true
backup.object.store=s3::bucket=my-bucket;region=eu-west-1;...

See the Backup and Restore guide for full configuration options.

Limitations

• Only one backup can run at a time
• Primary and replica backups are separate (each has its own backup_instance_name)

See also

• Backup and Restore guide - Complete backup configuration and restore procedures
• CHECKPOINT - Manual checkpoint mode for QuestDB OSS backups