operating-backup

Automate RDS database backup using AWS Backup to schedule daily and weekly snapshots for instances tagged Backup="true" with defined retention policies. Restore operations recover a new RDS instance from these snapshots and switch application endpoints during deployment or recovery scenarios.

Run pg_dump for PostgreSQL schema exports by connecting through a bastion host via an SSH tunnel. This manual schema-level backup approach targets specific schemas for export, requiring SSH access to the bastion host and local availability of PostgreSQL pg_dump tools.

AWS Backup and RDS snapshot restores require specific IAM permissions for AWS Backup management and RDS instance recovery. Additionally, performing manual schema dumps over SSH tunnels requires SSH access to bastion hosts and PostgreSQL pg_dump and pg_restore tools installed locally.

The best way to back up a database before risky deployments is combining automated AWS Backup snapshots with manual pg_dump schema exports over SSH tunnels. This dual approach ensures both full instance recovery points and targeted schema backups for migrating changes between environments.

Restore a PostgreSQL database from a dump file using pg_restore to recover schema-level exports created by pg_dump. This process handles dump files generated through SSH tunnel connections to bastion hosts, enabling recovery during deployment scenarios or emergency restoration.

Use AWS Backup snapshots for automated daily and weekly RDS instance-level backups with retention policies, and use manual pg_dump exports for targeted schema-level backups before specific risky changes. AWS Backup handles full instance recovery while pg_dump enables granular schema migration between environments.