Running Backups

Jagad supports multiple ways to run backups: one-shot manual backups, scheduled backups via cron expressions, and both full and incremental backup types. This page covers how to execute and monitor them.

Backup Types

Full Backup

A full backup dumps the entire database, compresses it with gzip, optionally encrypts it with AES-256-GCM, and streams it directly to S3-compatible storage.

Databases supported:

Database	Tool	Notes
PostgreSQL	pg_dump	Custom format (--format=c) with --clean --if-exists
MySQL	mysqldump	--single-transaction --routines --triggers --events
MariaDB	mariadb-dump or mysqldump	Prefers mariadb-dump if available

Streaming pipeline:

pg_dump/mysqldump → count → gzip → SHA-256 → (encrypt) → S3

Incremental Backup

Incremental backups capture only changes since the last full backup, saving storage space and time. Jagad uses battle-tested third-party tools:

Database	Engine	Tool
PostgreSQL	pgBackRest	pgbackrest --type=incr backup
MySQL	XtraBackup	xtrabackup --backup --stream=xbstream
MariaDB	Mariabackup	mariabackup --backup --stream=xbstream

Incremental backups also stream through gzip compression → S3, with no disk usage.

Note: For incremental backups to work, the corresponding tool must be installed on the Jagad server and available in PATH.

Running Backups Manually

Via Web UI

1. Navigate to Backups in the left sidebar
2. Click + New Backup
3. Select the connection (database server)
4. Select the database to back up
5. Choose backup type: full or incremental
6. Select the storage provider (or use default)
7. Configure notification preferences
8. Click Start Backup

The backup will begin immediately, and you'll see a new entry in the backup list with status running.

Via API

# Full backup
curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/api/backups \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: <session-token>" \
  -d '{
    "connection_id": "<connection-id>",
    "database_id": "<database-id>",
    "backup_type": "full"
  }'

# Incremental backup
curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/api/backups \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: <session-token>" \
  -d '{
    "connection_id": "<connection-id>",
    "database_id": "<database-id>",
    "backup_type": "incremental"
  }'

Scheduled Backups

Scheduled backups run automatically according to a cron expression. Each schedule targets one database on one connection with a specific backup type, storage provider, and retention policy.

Creating a Schedule

Via Web UI

1. Go to Schedules > Create Schedule
2. Select the connection and database
3. Set the cron expression (e.g., 0 2 * * * for daily at 2 AM)
4. Choose backup type (full or incremental)
5. Set retention policy (how many full/incremental backups to keep)
6. Select storage provider and encryption preferences
7. Save

Via API

curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/api/schedules \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: <session-token>" \
  -d '{
    "connection_id": "<connection-id>",
    "database_id": "<database-id>",
    "backup_type": "full",
    "cron_expr": "0 2 * * *",
    "storage_provider_id": "<provider-id>",
    "retention_full": 7,
    "retention_incr": 30,
    "notify_on_success": true,
    "notify_on_failure": true
  }'

Running a Schedule Now

You can trigger a scheduled backup immediately (without waiting for the cron time):

curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/api/schedules/<schedule-id>/run \
  -H "Authorization: <session-token>"

Disabling a Schedule

Set enabled: false to pause a schedule without deleting it. The cron entry is removed from the scheduler until re-enabled.

One-Shot vs Scheduled

Aspect	One-Shot	Scheduled
Trigger	Manual (UI or API)	Automatic (cron)
Retention	Not enforced automatically	Enforced after each backup
Use case	Ad-hoc, before maintenance, on-demand	Routine backups (daily, hourly)
Notifications	Per-request options	Configured on the schedule

Monitoring Backup Output

Backup Status

Each backup goes through these statuses:

Status	Description
running	Backup is in progress
success	Backup completed successfully
failed	Backup encountered an error
verifying	Integrity verification in progress

Viewing Logs

Via Web UI

Click on any backup in the list to view its details and full log output.

Via API

# Get backup details
curl -H "Authorization: <session-token>" \
  http://localhost:8080/api/backups/<backup-id>

# Get backup logs only
curl -H "Authorization: <session-token>" \
  http://localhost:8080/api/backups/<backup-id>/logs

Log Output Examples

Successful full backup:

BACKUP: streaming postgresql mydb
DUMP: postgresql started
DUMP: 4294967296 bytes uncompressed

Failed backup:

STORAGE PROVIDER ERROR: no storage provider configured — add one in Settings > Storage

Backup Limitations

• Maximum concurrent backups: 3 (configurable via JAGAD_MAX_CONCURRENT)
• List pagination: Maximum 100 backups per request (default 50)
• Incremental prerequisites: The corresponding engine tool must be installed

Retention Policy

Scheduled backups automatically enforce retention. After each backup completes:

1. Full backups: Only the most recent N are kept (configured per schedule)
2. Incremental backups: Only the most recent N are kept

Old backups are deleted from both the database records and object storage automatically.

Verification

Backups can be verified after completion to ensure integrity:

curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/api/backups/<backup-id>/verify \
  -H "Authorization: <session-token>"

Verification downloads the backup, decrypts it if needed, and compares the computed SHA-256 checksum against the stored checksum.