Database Backup Contract

Table of Contents

Contract Reference
Usage
Providers of the Database Backup Contract
Requester Blocks and Services

This NixOS contract represents a backup job that will backup everything in one database on a regular schedule.

It is a contract between a service that has database dumps to be backed up and a service that backs up databases dumps.

Contract Reference

These are all the options that are expected to exist for this contract to be respected.

shb.contracts.databasebackup

Contract for database backup between a requester module and a provider module.

The requester communicates to the provider how to backup the database through the request options.

The provider reads from the request options and backs up the database as requested. It communicates to the requester what script is used to backup and restore the database through the result options.

Type: submodule

Declared by:

<selfhostblocks/modules/contracts/databasebackup/dummyModule.nix>
shb.contracts.databasebackup.request

Options set by a requester module of the database backup contract.

Type: submodule

Declared by:

<selfhostblocks/modules/contracts/databasebackup/dummyModule.nix>
shb.contracts.databasebackup.request.backupCmd

Command that produces the database dump on stdout.

Type: string

Example:

${pkgs.postgresql}/bin/pg_dumpall | ${pkgs.gzip}/bin/gzip --rsyncable

Declared by:

<selfhostblocks/modules/contracts/databasebackup/dummyModule.nix>
shb.contracts.databasebackup.request.backupName

Name of the backup in the repository.

Type: string

Default: "dump"

Example: "postgresql.sql"

Declared by:

<selfhostblocks/modules/contracts/databasebackup/dummyModule.nix>
shb.contracts.databasebackup.request.restoreCmd

Command that reads the database dump on stdin and restores the database.

Type: string

Example:

${pkgs.gzip}/bin/gunzip | ${pkgs.postgresql}/bin/psql postgres

Declared by:

<selfhostblocks/modules/contracts/databasebackup/dummyModule.nix>
shb.contracts.databasebackup.request.user

Unix user doing the backups.

This should be an admin user having access to all databases.

Type: string

Example: "postgres"

Declared by:

<selfhostblocks/modules/contracts/databasebackup/dummyModule.nix>
shb.contracts.databasebackup.result

Options set by a provider module of the database backup contract.

Type: submodule

Declared by:

<selfhostblocks/modules/contracts/databasebackup/dummyModule.nix>
shb.contracts.databasebackup.result.backupService

Name of service backing up the database.

This script can be ran manually to backup the database:

$ systemctl start my_backup_service.service

Type: string

Default: null

Declared by:

<selfhostblocks/modules/contracts/databasebackup/dummyModule.nix>
shb.contracts.databasebackup.result.restoreScript

Name of script that can restore the database. One can then list snapshots with:

$ my_restore_script snapshots

And restore the database with:

$ my_restore_script restore latest

Type: string

Default: null

Declared by:

<selfhostblocks/modules/contracts/databasebackup/dummyModule.nix>

Usage

A database that can be backed up will provide a databasebackup option. Such a service is a requester providing a request for a module provider of this contract.

What this option defines is, from the user perspective - that is you - an implementation detail but it will at least define how to create a database dump, the user to backup with and how to restore from a database dump.

Here is an example module defining such a databasebackup option:

{
  options = {
    myservice.databasebackup = mkOption {
      type = contracts.databasebackup.request;
      default = {
        user = "myservice";
        backupCmd = ''
          ${pkgs.postgresql}/bin/pg_dumpall | ${pkgs.gzip}/bin/gzip --rsyncable
        '';
        restoreCmd = ''
          ${pkgs.gzip}/bin/gunzip | ${pkgs.postgresql}/bin/psql postgres
        '';
      };
    };
  };
};

Now, on the other side we have a service that uses this backup option and actually backs up files. This service is a provider of this contract and will provide a result option.

Let’s assume such a module is available under the databasebackupservice option and that one can create multiple backup instances under databasebackupservice.instances. Then, to actually backup the myservice service, one would write:

databasebackupservice.instances.myservice = {
  request = myservice.databasebackup;
  
  settings = {
    enable = true;

    repository = {
      path = "/srv/backup/myservice";
    };

    # ... Other options specific to backupservice like scheduling.
  };
};

It is advised to backup files to different location, to improve redundancy. Thanks to using contracts, this can be made easily either with the same databasebackupservice:

databasebackupservice.instances.myservice_2 = {
  request = myservice.backup;
  
  settings = {
    enable = true;
  
    repository = {
      path = "<remote path>";
    };
  };
};

Or with another module databasebackupservice_2!

Providers of the Database Backup Contract

Requester Blocks and Services