How to Backup PostgreSQL Database to Filebase Using Bash

Filebase provides an S3-compatible object storage service that helps users to store and serve large amounts of data over the internet. It is an alternate solution to AWS S3 and offers simple, affordable, and predictable pricing. It offers all users a 5GB free tier with no expiration or trials. Filebase uses edge caching technology that increases throughput and lowers response times for both ingress and egress.

This post will show you how to backup PostgreSQL databases to Filebase using Bash.

Table Of Contents

• Create a Bucket on Filebase
• Install S3cmd Tool
• Configure S3cmd to Connect PostgreSQL Server to Filebase
• Use S3cmd to Backup PostgreSQL Database to Filebase Bucket
• Conclusion

Create a Bucket on Filebase

First, you will need to create a bucket on Filebase where you want to store your PostgreSQL databases. Follow the below steps to create a Filebase bucket.

Step 1 - First, sign in to your Filebase account.

Step 2 - Click on the Buckets on the left pane, you should see the following screen:

Step 3 - Click on the Create Bucket button. You should see the bucket creation screen:

Step 4 - Provide your bucker name, choose your storage location, and click the Create Bucket button. Once the bucket is created, you should see the following screen:

Step 5 - Click on the Access Keys on the left pane, you should see your Filebase access key and secrets on the following screen:

Please note down this access key, secret key, and API endpoint. You will need all to connect to the Filebase bucket.

Install S3cmd Tool

Next, you will need to install the S3cmd tool on your PostgreSQL database server from where you want to back up your PostgreSQL database.

S3cmd is a free and open-source command-line tool that allows you to upload, download and manage data in Filebase bucket and other cloud storage service providers. Follow the below steps to install the S3cmd to your server.

First, install the Python and other dependencies by running the following command:

apt-get install python3 python3-setuptools curl -y

Next, download the latest version of S3cmd using the following command:

curl -LO https://github.com/s3tools/s3cmd/releases/download/v2.2.0/s3cmd-2.2.0.tar.gz

Next, extract the downloaded file with the following command:

tar -xvzf s3cmd-2.2.0.tar.gz

Next, navigate to the extracted directory and install it using the following command:

cd s3cmd-2.2.0
python3 setup.py install

Once the S3cmd is installed, verify the S3cmd version using the following command:

s3cmd --version

You will get the following output:

s3cmd version 2.2.0

Configure S3cmd to Connect PostgreSQL Server to Filebase

Next, you will need to configure the S3cmd using the Filebase Access key and Secret key. You can configure it using the following command:

s3cmd --configure

You will be asked to provide your Filebase Access Key, Secret Key, Region, and Endpoint as shown below:

Enter new values or accept defaults in brackets with Enter.
Refer to user manual for detailed description of all options.
 
Access key and Secret key are your identifiers for Amazon S3. Leave them empty for using the env variables.
Access Key: 54203D2S91DA6F043A3D
Secret Key: JSo3sFt7vMF1v3iISArDwWvzSHsPlSsroaL1591A
Default Region [US]: us-east-1
 
Use "s3.amazonaws.com" for S3 Endpoint and not modify it to the target Amazon S3.
S3 Endpoint [s3.amazonaws.com]: s3.filebase.com
 
Use "%(bucket)s.s3.amazonaws.com" to the target Amazon S3. "%(bucket)s" and "%(location)s" vars can be used
if the target S3 system supports dns based buckets.
DNS-style bucket+hostname:port template for accessing a bucket [%(bucket)s.s3.amazonaws.com]: %(bucket)s.s3.filebase.com
 
Encryption password is used to protect your files from reading
by unauthorized persons while in transfer to S3
Encryption password:
Path to GPG program [/usr/bin/gpg]:
 
When using secure HTTPS protocol all communication with Amazon S3
servers is protected from 3rd party eavesdropping. This method is
slower than plain HTTP, and can only be proxied with Python 2.7 or newer
Use HTTPS protocol [Yes]:
 
On some networks all internet access must go through a HTTP proxy.
Try setting it here if you can't connect to S3 directly
HTTP Proxy server name:
 
New settings:
  Access Key: 54203D2S91DA6F043A3D
  Secret Key: JSo3sFt7vMF1v3iISArDwWvzSHsPlSsroaL1591A
  Default Region: us-east-1
  S3 Endpoint: s3.filebase.com
  DNS-style bucket+hostname:port template for accessing a bucket: %(bucket)s.s3.filebase.com
  Encryption password:
  Path to GPG program: /usr/bin/gpg
  Use HTTPS protocol: True
  HTTP Proxy server name:
  HTTP Proxy server port: 0
 
Test access with supplied credentials? [Y/n] Y
Please wait, attempting to list all buckets...
Success. Your access key and secret key worked fine :-)
 
Now verifying that encryption works...
Not configured. Never mind.
 
Save settings? [y/N] y

Once the S3cmd is configured, you can verify your Filebase Bucket information using the following command:

s3cmd info s3://postgresql-filebase/

You will get the following output:

s3://postgresql-filebase/ (bucket):
Location: us-east-1
Payer: none
Expiration Rule: none
Policy: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><ListBucketResult xmlns="http://s3.amazonaws.com/doc/2006-03-01/"><Name>postgresql-filebase</Name><Prefix/><Marker/><MaxKeys>1000</MaxKeys><IsTruncated>false</IsTruncated></ListBucketResult>
CORS: none
ACL: simon@snapshooter.io: FULL_CONTROL

Use S3cmd to Backup PostgreSQL Database to Filebase Bucket

First, log in to your server and connect to the PostgreSQL shell with the following command:

su - postgresql
psql

Once you are connected, list all PostgreSQL databases using the following command:

postgres=# \l

You will get all databases in the following output:

List of databases
Name | Owner | Encoding | Collate | Ctype | Access privileges
-----------+----------+----------+-------------+-------------+-----------------------
postgres | postgres | UTF8 | en_US.UTF-8 | en_US.UTF-8 |
template0 | postgres | UTF8 | en_US.UTF-8 | en_US.UTF-8 | =c/postgres +
| | | | | postgres=CTc/postgres
template1 | postgres | UTF8 | en_US.UTF-8 | en_US.UTF-8 | =c/postgres +
| | | | | postgres=CTc/postgres
testdb | postgres | UTF8 | en_US.UTF-8 | en_US.UTF-8 |
(7 rows)

Next, use the pg_dumpall tool to backup all PostgreSQL databases:

pg_dumpall > dump.sql

If you want to back up a single database, run the following command:

pg_dump -U username -W -F t -d testdb > testdb.tar

Next, run the S3cmd command to copy the dump.sql file to the Filebase Bucket:

s3cmd put dump.sql s3://postgresql-filebase/

You will get the following output:

upload: 'dump.sql' -> 's3://postgresql-filebase/dump.sql' [1 of 1]
26690 of 26690 100% in 0s 57.07 KB/s done

If you want to copy a single backup file, run the following command:

s3cmd put testdb.tar s3://postgresql-filebase/

You will get the following output:

upload: 'testdb.tar' -> 's3://postgresql-filebase/testdb.tar' [1 of 1]
2170880 of 2170880 100% in 3s 672.95 KB/s done

You can now verify all backups on the Filebase Bucket using the following command:

s3cmd ls s3://postgresql-filebase

You will get the following output:

2022-07-15 05:25 26690 s3://postgresql-filebase/dump.sql
2022-07-15 05:25 2170880 s3://postgresql-filebase/testdb.tar

You can also log in to the Filebase Bucket and verify your backup files as shown below:

Conclusion

In this post, you learned how to back up the PostgreSQL database to the Filebase bucket using bash. You can now easily copy your PostgreSQL databases to the Filebase bucket via the s3cmd command line.