Provided by: barman_2.18-1_all 
NAME
barman - Backup and Recovery Manager for PostgreSQL
SYNOPSIS
barman [OPTIONS] COMMAND
DESCRIPTION
Barman is an administration tool for disaster recovery of PostgreSQL servers written in Python and main‐
tained by EnterpriseDB. Barman can perform remote backups of multiple servers in business critical envi‐
ronments and helps DBAs during the recovery phase.
OPTIONS
-h, --help
Show a help message and exit.
-v, --version
Show program version number and exit.
-c CONFIG, --config CONFIG
Use the specified configuration file.
--color {never,always,auto}, --colour {never,always,auto}
Whether to use colors in the output (default: auto)
-q, --quiet
Do not output anything. Useful for cron scripts.
-d, --debug
debug output (default: False)
--log-level {NOTSET,DEBUG,INFO,WARNING,ERROR,CRITICAL}
Override the default log level
-f {json,console}, --format {json,console}
output format (default: 'console')
COMMANDS
Important: every command has a help option
archive-wal SERVER_NAME
Get any incoming xlog file (both through standard archive_command and streaming replication, where
applicable) and moves them in the WAL archive for that server. If necessary, apply compression
when requested by the user.
backup SERVER_NAME
Perform a backup of SERVER_NAME using parameters specified in the configuration file. Specify all
as SERVER_NAME to perform a backup of all the configured servers.
--immediate-checkpoint
forces the initial checkpoint to be done as quickly as possible. Overrides value of the
parameter immediate_checkpoint, if present in the configuration file.
--no-immediate-checkpoint
forces to wait for the checkpoint. Overrides value of the parameter immediate_checkpoint,
if present in the configuration file.
--reuse-backup [INCREMENTAL_TYPE]
Overrides reuse_backup option behaviour. Possible values for INCREMENTAL_TYPE are:
• off: do not reuse the last available backup;
• copy: reuse the last available backup for a server and create a copy of the unchanged
files (reduce backup time);
• link: reuse the last available backup for a server and create a hard link of the un‐
changed files (reduce backup time and space);
link is the default target if --reuse-backup is used and INCREMENTAL_TYPE is not explicit.
--retry-times
Number of retries of base backup copy, after an error. Used during both backup and recov‐
ery operations. Overrides value of the parameter basebackup_retry_times, if present in the
configuration file.
--no-retry
Same as --retry-times 0
--retry-sleep
Number of seconds of wait after a failed copy, before retrying. Used during both backup
and recovery operations. Overrides value of the parameter basebackup_retry_sleep, if
present in the configuration file.
-j, --jobs
Number of parallel workers to copy files during backup. Overrides value of the parameter
parallel_jobs, if present in the configuration file.
--bwlimit KBPS
maximum transfer rate in kilobytes per second. A value of 0 means no limit. Overrides
'bandwidth_limit' configuration option. Default is undefined.
--wait, -w
wait for all required WAL files by the base backup to be archived
--wait-timeout
the time, in seconds, spent waiting for the required WAL files to be archived before timing
out
check-backup SERVER_NAME BACKUP_ID
Make sure that all the required WAL files to check the consistency of a physical backup (that is,
from the beginning to the end of the full backup) are correctly archived. This command is auto‐
matically invoked by the cron command and at the end of every backup operation.
check-wal-archive SERVER_NAME
Check that the WAL archive destination for SERVER_NAME is safe to use for a new PostgreSQL clus‐
ter. With no optional args (the default) this will pass if the WAL archive is empty and fail oth‐
erwise.
--timeline [TIMELINE]
A positive integer specifying the earliest timeline for which associated WALs should cause
the check to fail. The check will pass if all WAL content in the archive relates to earli‐
er timelines. If any WAL files are on this timeline or greater then the check will fail.
check SERVER_NAME
Show diagnostic information about SERVER_NAME, including: Ssh connection check, PostgreSQL ver‐
sion, configuration and backup directories, archiving process, streaming process, replication
slots, etc. Specify all as SERVER_NAME to show diagnostic information about all the configured
servers.
--nagios
Nagios plugin compatible output
cron Perform maintenance tasks, such as enforcing retention policies or WAL files management.
--keep-descriptors
Keep the stdout and the stderr streams of the Barman subprocesses attached to this one.
This is useful for Docker based installations.
delete SERVER_NAME BACKUP_ID
Delete the specified backup. Backup ID shortcuts section below for available shortcuts.
diagnose
Collect diagnostic information about the server where barman is installed and all the configured
servers, including: global configuration, SSH version, Python version, rsync version, as well as
current configuration and status of all servers.
get-wal [OPTIONS] SERVER_NAME WAL_NAME
Retrieve a WAL file from the xlog archive of a given server. By default, the requested WAL file,
if found, is returned as uncompressed content to STDOUT. The following options allow users to
change this behaviour:
-o OUTPUT_DIRECTORY
destination directory where the get-wal will deposit the requested WAL
-P, --partial
retrieve also partial WAL files (.partial)
-z output will be compressed using gzip
-j output will be compressed using bzip2
-p SIZE
peek from the WAL archive up to SIZE WAL files, starting from the requested one. 'SIZE'
must be an integer >= 1. When invoked with this option, get-wal returns a list of zero to
'SIZE' WAL segment names, one per row.
-t, --test
test both the connection and the configuration of the requested PostgreSQL server in Barman
for WAL retrieval. With this option, the 'WAL_NAME' mandatory argument is ignored.
keep SERVER_NAME BACKUP_ID
Flag the specified backup as an archival backup which should be kept forever, regardless of any
retention policies in effect. See the Backup ID shortcuts section below for available shortcuts.
--target RECOVERY_TARGET
Specify the recovery target for the archival backup. Possible values for RECOVERY_TARGET
are:
• full: The backup can always be used to recover to the latest point in time. To achieve
this, Barman will retain all WALs needed to ensure consistency of the backup and all sub‐
sequent WALs.
• standalone: The backup can only be used to recover the server to its state at the time
the backup was taken. Barman will only retain the WALs needed to ensure consistency of
the backup.
--status
Report the archival status of the backup. This will either be the recovery target of full
or standalone for archival backups or nokeep for backups which have not been flagged as
archival.
--release
Release the keep flag from this backup. This will remove its archival status and make it
available for deletion, either directly or by retention policy.
list-backups SERVER_NAME
Show available backups for SERVER_NAME. This command is useful to retrieve a backup ID. For ex‐
ample:
servername 20111104T102647 - Fri Nov 4 10:26:48 2011 - Size: 17.0 MiB - WAL Size: 100 B
In this case, *20111104T102647* is the backup ID.
list-files [OPTIONS] SERVER_NAME BACKUP_ID
List all the files in a particular backup, identified by the server name and the backup ID. See
the Backup ID shortcuts section below for available shortcuts.
--target TARGET_TYPE
Possible values for TARGET_TYPE are:
• data: lists just the data files;
• standalone: lists the base backup files, including required WAL files;
• wal: lists all the WAL files between the start of the base backup and the end of the log
/ the start of the following base backup (depending on whether the specified base backup
is the most recent one available);
• full: same as data + wal.
The default value is standalone.
list-servers
Show all the configured servers, and their descriptions.
put-wal [OPTIONS] SERVER_NAME
Receive a WAL file from a remote server and securely store it into the SERVER_NAME incoming direc‐
tory. The WAL file is retrieved from the STDIN, and must be encapsulated in a tar stream together
with a MD5SUMS file to validate it. This command is meant to be invoked through SSH from a remote
barman-wal-archive utility (part of barman-cli package). Do not use this command directly unless
you take full responsibility of the content of files.
-t, --test
test both the connection and the configuration of the requested PostgreSQL server in Barman
to make sure it is ready to receive WAL files.
rebuild-xlogdb SERVER_NAME
Perform a rebuild of the WAL file metadata for SERVER_NAME (or every server, using the all short‐
cut) guessing it from the disk content. The metadata of the WAL archive is contained in the
xlog.db file, and every Barman server has its own copy.
receive-wal SERVER_NAME
Start the stream of transaction logs for a server. The process relies on pg_receivewal/pg_re‐
ceivexlog to receive WAL files from the PostgreSQL servers through the streaming protocol.
--stop stop the receive-wal process for the server
--reset
reset the status of receive-wal, restarting the streaming from the current WAL file of the
server
--create-slot
create the physical replication slot configured with the slot_name configuration parameter
--drop-slot
drop the physical replication slot configured with the slot_name configuration parameter
recover [OPTIONS] SERVER_NAME BACKUP_ID DESTINATION_DIRECTORY
Recover a backup in a given directory (local or remote, depending on the --remote-ssh-command op‐
tion settings). See the Backup ID shortcuts section below for available shortcuts.
--target-tli TARGET_TLI
Recover the specified timeline.
--target-time TARGET_TIME
Recover to the specified time.
You can use any valid unambiguous representation (e.g: "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS.mmm").
--target-xid TARGET_XID
Recover to the specified transaction ID.
--target-lsn TARGET_LSN
Recover to the specified LSN (Log Sequence Number). Requires PostgreSQL 10 or above.
--target-name TARGET_NAME
Recover to the named restore point previously created with the pg_create_re‐
store_point(name) (for PostgreSQL 9.1 and above users).
--target-immediate
Recover ends when a consistent state is reached (end of the base backup)
--exclusive
Set target (time, XID or LSN) to be non inclusive.
--target-action ACTION
Trigger the specified action once the recovery target is reached. Possible actions are:
pause (PostgreSQL 9.1 and above), shutdown (PostgreSQL 9.5 and above) and promote (ditto).
This option requires a target to be defined, with one of the above options.
--tablespace NAME:LOCATION
Specify tablespace relocation rule.
--remote-ssh-command SSH_COMMAND
This options activates remote recovery, by specifying the secure shell command to be
launched on a remote host. This is the equivalent of the "ssh_command" server option in
the configuration file for remote recovery. Example: 'ssh postgres@db2'.
--retry-times RETRY_TIMES
Number of retries of data copy during base backup after an error. Overrides value of the
parameter basebackup_retry_times, if present in the configuration file.
--no-retry
Same as --retry-times 0
--retry-sleep
Number of seconds of wait after a failed copy, before retrying. Overrides value of the pa‐
rameter basebackup_retry_sleep, if present in the configuration file.
--bwlimit KBPS
maximum transfer rate in kilobytes per second. A value of 0 means no limit. Overrides
'bandwidth_limit' configuration option. Default is undefined.
-j , --jobs
Number of parallel workers to copy files during recovery. Overrides value of the parameter
parallel_jobs, if present in the configuration file. Works only for servers configured
through rsync/SSH.
--get-wal, --no-get-wal
Enable/Disable usage of get-wal for WAL fetching during recovery. Default is based on re‐
covery_options setting.
--network-compression, --no-network-compression
Enable/Disable network compression during remote recovery. Default is based on net‐
work_compression configuration setting.
--standby-mode
Specifies whether to start the PostgreSQL server as a standby. Default is undefined.
replication-status [OPTIONS] SERVER_NAME
Shows live information and status of any streaming client attached to the given server (or
servers). Default behaviour can be changed through the following options:
--minimal
machine readable output (default: False)
--target TARGET_TYPE
Possible values for TARGET_TYPE are:
• hot-standby: lists only hot standby servers
• wal-streamer: lists only WAL streaming clients, such as pg_receivewal
• all: any streaming client (default)
show-backup SERVER_NAME BACKUP_ID
Show detailed information about a particular backup, identified by the server name and the backup
ID. See the Backup ID shortcuts section below for available shortcuts. For example:
Backup 20150828T130001:
Server Name : quagmire
Status : DONE
PostgreSQL Version : 90402
PGDATA directory : /srv/postgresql/9.4/main/data
Base backup information:
Disk usage : 12.4 TiB (12.4 TiB with WALs)
Incremental size : 4.9 TiB (-60.02%)
Timeline : 1
Begin WAL : 0000000100000CFD000000AD
End WAL : 0000000100000D0D00000008
WAL number : 3932
WAL compression ratio: 79.51%
Begin time : 2015-08-28 13:00:01.633925+00:00
End time : 2015-08-29 10:27:06.522846+00:00
Begin Offset : 1575048
End Offset : 13853016
Begin XLOG : CFD/AD180888
End XLOG : D0D/8D36158
WAL information:
No of files : 35039
Disk usage : 121.5 GiB
WAL rate : 275.50/hour
Compression ratio : 77.81%
Last available : 0000000100000D95000000E7
Catalog information:
Retention Policy : not enforced
Previous Backup : 20150821T130001
Next Backup : - (this is the latest base backup)
show-servers SERVER_NAME
Show information about SERVER_NAME, including: conninfo, backup_directory, wals_directory and many
more. Specify all as SERVER_NAME to show information about all the configured servers.
status SERVER_NAME
Show information about the status of a server, including: number of available backups,
archive_command, archive_status and many more. For example:
Server quagmire:
Description: The Giggity database
Passive node: False
PostgreSQL version: 9.3.9
pgespresso extension: Not available
PostgreSQL Data directory: /srv/postgresql/9.3/data
PostgreSQL 'archive_command' setting: rsync -a %p barman@backup:/var/lib/barman/quagmire/incoming
Last archived WAL: 0000000100003103000000AD
Current WAL segment: 0000000100003103000000AE
Retention policies: enforced (mode: auto, retention: REDUNDANCY 2, WAL retention: MAIN)
No. of available backups: 2
First available backup: 20150908T003001
Last available backup: 20150909T003001
Minimum redundancy requirements: satisfied (2/1)
switch-wal SERVER_NAME
Execute pg_switch_wal() on the target server (from PostgreSQL 10), or pg_switch_xlog (for Post‐
greSQL 8.3 to 9.6).
--force
Forces the switch by executing CHECKPOINT before pg_switch_xlog(). IMPORTANT: executing a
CHECKPOINT might increase I/O load on a PostgreSQL server. Use this option with care.
--archive
Wait for one xlog file to be archived. If after a defined amount of time (default: 30 sec‐
onds) no xlog file is archived, Barman will terminate with failure exit code. Available
also on standby servers.
--archive-timeout TIMEOUT
Specifies the amount of time in seconds (default: 30 seconds) the archiver will wait for a
new xlog file to be archived before timing out. Available also on standby servers.
switch-xlog SERVER_NAME
Alias for switch-wal (kept for back-compatibility)
sync-backup SERVER_NAME BACKUP_ID
Command used for the synchronisation of a passive node with its primary. Executes a copy of all
the files of a BACKUP_ID that is present on SERVER_NAME node. This command is available only for
passive nodes, and uses the primary_ssh_command option to establish a secure connection with the
primary node.
sync-info SERVER_NAME [LAST_WAL [LAST_POSITION]]
Collect information regarding the current status of a Barman server, to be used for synchronisa‐
tion purposes. Returns a JSON output representing SERVER_NAME, that contains: all the successful‐
ly finished backup, all the archived WAL files, the configuration, last WAL file been read from
the xlog.db and the position in the file.
LAST_WAL
tells sync-info to skip any WAL file previous to that (incremental synchronisation)
LAST_POSITION
hint for quickly positioning in the xlog.db file (incremental synchronisation)
sync-wals SERVER_NAME
Command used for the synchronisation of a passive node with its primary. Executes a copy of all
the archived WAL files that are present on SERVER_NAME node. This command is available only for
passive nodes, and uses the primary_ssh_command option to establish a secure connection with the
primary node.
BACKUP ID SHORTCUTS
Rather than using the timestamp backup ID, you can use any of the following shortcuts/aliases to identity
a backup for a given server:
first Oldest available backup for that server, in chronological order.
last Latest available backup for that server, in chronological order.
latest same ast last.
oldest same ast first.
last-failed
Latest failed backup, in chronological order.
EXIT STATUS
0 Success
Not zero
Failure
SEE ALSO
barman (5).
BUGS
Barman has been extensively tested, and is currently being used in several production environments. How‐
ever, we cannot exclude the presence of bugs.
Any bug can be reported via the Github bug tracker. Along with the bug submission, users can provide de‐
velopers with diagnostics information obtained through the barman diagnose command.
AUTHORS
Barman maintainers (in alphabetical order):
• Abhijit Menon-Sen
• Jane Threefoot
• Michael Wallace
Past contributors (in alphabetical order):
• Anna Bellandi (QA/testing)
• Britt Cole (documentation reviewer)
• Carlo Ascani (developer)
• Francesco Canovai (QA/testing)
• Gabriele Bartolini (architect)
• Gianni Ciolli (QA/testing)
• Giulio Calacoci (developer)
• Giuseppe Broccolo (developer)
• Jonathan Battiato (QA/testing)
• Leonardo Cecchi (developer)
• Marco Nenciarini (project leader)
• Niccolò Fei (QA/testing)
• Rubens Souza (QA/testing)
• Stefano Bianucci (developer)
RESOURCES
• Homepage: <http://www.pgbarman.org/>
• Documentation: <http://docs.pgbarman.org/>
• Professional support: <http://www.enterprisedb.com/>
COPYING
Barman is the property of EnterpriseDB UK Limited and its code is distributed under GNU General Public
License v3.
© Copyright EnterpriseDB UK Limited 2011-2022
AUTHORS
EnterpriseDB <https://www.enterprisedb.com>.
Barman User manuals January 21, 2022 BARMAN(1)