05. Backups and DR

Monitor backup status, WAL archiving, and disaster recovery readiness.

note

This dashboard requires WAL archiving to be configured (pgBackRest, WAL-G, or similar). Without backup tools configured, panels will show "No data".

Purpose

Track backup health to ensure:

• Backups complete successfully
• WAL archiving keeps pace with generation
• Recovery point objectives (RPO) are met

When to use

• Daily backup verification
• Investigating failed backups
• Capacity planning for backup storage
• Validating DR readiness

Key panels

WAL archiving status

What it shows:

• WAL files waiting to be archived
• Archive success/failure rate
• Archive lag time

Healthy state:

• ready_count near 0 (no backlog)
• Consistent archive rate matching WAL generation

Warning signs:

• Growing ready_count = archiving falling behind
• Archive failures = storage or network issues

Last backup age

What it shows:

• Time since last successful backup
• Backup duration trend

Healthy range:

• Within your backup schedule (e.g., < 24h for daily backups)

WAL generation rate

What it shows:

• WAL bytes generated per second
• Helps size archive storage and bandwidth

Checkpoint activity

What it shows:

• Checkpoint frequency and duration
• Checkpoint write/sync times

Healthy state:

• Checkpoints completing within checkpoint_timeout
• No checkpoint warnings in logs

Variables

Variable	Purpose
cluster_name	Cluster filter
node_name	Node filter

Backup tools integration

This dashboard monitors PostgreSQL-level metrics. For tool-specific monitoring:

Tool	What to monitor
pg_basebackup	Backup completion time, size
pgBackRest	Stanza status, backup retention
Barman	Server status, backup catalog
WAL-G	Backup list, WAL archive status

Related dashboards

• Storage pressure — 01. Node overview
• Replication status — 06. Replication

Troubleshooting

WAL archive backlog growing

1. Check archive command status:

   select * from pg_stat_archiver;

2. Verify archive destination has space

3. Check archive command in postgresql.conf:

   show archive_command;

No backup metrics

Ensure your backup tool exposes metrics that pgwatch can collect, or configure custom metrics for your backup solution.