How to back up PostgreSQL databases using cron jobs

Automated database backups using cron jobs

You can set up a cron job to backup a PostgreSQL database automatically at a specified interval. However, a cron job operates in the background without user intervention; therefore, further configuration procedures are needed to allow cron to access a database without requiring a password.

To do this, follow these steps:

1. Log in to your account using SSH.
2. Using your preferred text editor, create a file named .pgpass in the /home/username directory, where username represents your Hostvento Hosting account username.Make sure you include the leading period (.) in the filename.
3. Copy and paste the following text into the .pgpass file. Replace dbname with the name of the database you want to back up, dbusername with a user who has access to the database, and password with the database user’s password:#hostname:port:database:username:password localhost:5432:dbname:dbusername:password
4. Save the changes to the .pgpass file and exit the text editor.
5. At the command prompt, type the following command:
   Copychmod 600 .pgpassFor the pg_dump program to work correctly, the correct permissions must be set on the .pgpass file.
6. Create a cron job that runs the following command. Replace dbusername with the user who has access to the database, replace dbname with the name of the database you want to back up, and replace path with the path where you want to store the database backup file. This example uses backup.pgsql for the backup’s filename, but you can use any filename you want:
   Copy/usr/bin/pg_dump –no-password -U dbusernamedbname > /path/backup.pgsql
   • If your account is on a shared hosting server or reseller hosting server, path must begin with ${HOME} or /home/username, where username represents your Hostvento Hosting account username.
   • For information about how to use cPanel to create a cron job, please see this article.

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