Getting Started

Database Backuper is a job service in Open Source Cloud that creates and restores backups for database instances. Each run performs a single operation — backup or restore — and then exits. Backups are stored in (and restored from) an S3-compatible object store such as MinIO.

Supported databases: PostgreSQL, MariaDB/MySQL, Valkey/Redis, ClickHouse, CouchDB.

Prerequisites

  • An OSC account. Sign up here.
  • A running database instance (e.g. a PostgreSQL or MariaDB instance on OSC).
  • An S3-compatible storage bucket (e.g. a MinIO instance on OSC) where backups will be kept.

Create a backup

Navigate to Database Backuper → Create db-backuper and fill in:

Field Required Description
name Yes A unique name for this job run.
Operation Yes backup to create a backup, or restore to restore from an existing backup.
DatabaseUrl Yes Connection URL for your database. The URL scheme selects the database type — see formats below.
S3Endpoint No S3-compatible endpoint URL (e.g. your MinIO instance URL).
S3Bucket No Name of the S3 bucket where the backup is stored.
S3ObjectKey No Path within the bucket (e.g. mydb/2026-04-25.dump).
S3AccessKey No S3 access key. Use a service secret reference.
S3SecretKey No S3 secret key. Use a service secret reference.
EncryptionKey No Optional AES-256-CBC key to encrypt backups at rest. Not supported for ClickHouse backups.

Database URL formats

Database URL format
PostgreSQL postgres://user:password@host:5432/dbname
MariaDB / MySQL mariadb://user:password@host:3306/dbname
Valkey / Redis valkey://password@host:6379
ClickHouse clickhouse://user:password@host:9000/dbname
CouchDB couchdb://admin:password@host:5984

Store the full connection URL as a service secret and reference it as {{secrets.dburl}} to avoid exposing credentials.

Example: Backing up a PostgreSQL instance on OSC

  1. Create a MinIO instance to store the backup.
  2. Note the MinIO internal URL, access key (RootUser), and secret key (RootPassword).
  3. Create a service secret called dburl containing your PostgreSQL connection URL, and a secret miniocreds with your MinIO secret key.
  4. Create a Database Backuper job:
osc create eyevinn-db-backuper pgbackup20260425 \
  -o Operation="backup" \
  -o DatabaseUrl="{{secrets.dburl}}" \
  -o S3Endpoint="https://myminio.minio-minio.auto.prod.osaas.io" \
  -o S3Bucket="backups" \
  -o S3ObjectKey="mydb/2026-04-25.dump" \
  -o S3AccessKey="myrootuser" \
  -o S3SecretKey="{{secrets.miniocreds}}"

The job runs, uploads the dump to MinIO, and exits. Check the instance status in the dashboard to confirm it completed successfully.

Example: Restoring a backup

Run a new Database Backuper job with Operation=restore pointing to the same S3 object key:

osc create eyevinn-db-backuper pgrestore20260425 \
  -o Operation="restore" \
  -o DatabaseUrl="{{secrets.dburl}}" \
  -o S3Endpoint="https://myminio.minio-minio.auto.prod.osaas.io" \
  -o S3Bucket="backups" \
  -o S3ObjectKey="mydb/2026-04-25.dump" \
  -o S3AccessKey="myrootuser" \
  -o S3SecretKey="{{secrets.miniocreds}}"

Backup scheduling via My Agent Tasks

Database Backuper is a one-shot job, not a long-running service. To run backups on a schedule, create a My Agent Task with a prompt that calls the OSC CLI or MCP tool to launch a new Database Backuper instance at the desired interval.

Using the OSC Database Backups UI

For databases managed through OSC, a higher-level backup UI is available at My Backups that wraps Database Backuper automatically. See Database Backups for details.

Resources