Table of Contents
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.
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
  
 
Request part of the backup contract.
Options set by the requester module enforcing how to backup files.
Type: submodule
Default:
""
Declared by:
| 
<selfhostblocks/modules/contracts/databasebackup/dummyModule.nix>
 | 
shb.contracts.databasebackup.request.backupCmd
  
 
Command that produces the database dump on stdout.
Type: string
Default:
""
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
Default:
""
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
Default:
"root"
Example:
"postgres"
Declared by:
| 
<selfhostblocks/modules/contracts/databasebackup/dummyModule.nix>
 | 
shb.contracts.databasebackup.result
  
 
Result part of the backup contract.
Options set by the provider module that indicates the name of the backup and restor scripts.
Type: submodule
Default:
""
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 backup.service
Type: string
Default:
"backup.service"
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:
$ restore snapshots
And restore the database with:
$ restore restore latest
Type: string
Default:
"restore"
Declared by:
| 
<selfhostblocks/modules/contracts/databasebackup/dummyModule.nix>
 | 
shb.contracts.databasebackup.settings
  
 
Optional attribute set with options specific to the provider.
Type: anything
Declared by:
| 
<selfhostblocks/modules/contracts/databasebackup/dummyModule.nix>
 | 
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!
Borgbackup block [WIP].