Barman 2.0 Released

BARMAN 2.0 RELEASED

Barman (Backup and Recovery Manager) is an open-source administration
tool for disaster recovery of PostgreSQL servers written in Python.
Barman enables the remote online hot backup of multiple servers in
business critical environments, helping make a DBA's life easier during
the recovery stage - now with zero data loss.

What's New

The major release of version 2.0 is an important milestone in Barman's
journey as it introduces support for a “STREAMING ONLY” BACKUP of a
PostgreSQL server, removing the need for SSH connections altogether.

This is made possible by two significant improvements related to
streaming replication:

- Transparent integration with pg_basebackup for backup operations
- Full support of replication slots for WAL streaming

Through streaming-only backups, Barman is now able to reach Docker and
Windows users of PostgreSQL. From an architectural point of view, Barman
is now able to offer even more versatility and flexibility by combining
traditional SSH communications with PostgreSQL’s native streaming
connections.

Another important addition is support for synchronous WAL streaming that
allows zero data loss backups and reduces implementation costs of
PostgreSQL clusters with “RPO=0” business continuity requirements.

Barman 2.0 also supports the new concurrent backup API introduced in
PostgreSQL 9.6, eliminating the need for the pgespresso extension when
taking backups from a standby server.

The new 'barman-cli' package improves integration of Barman with repmgr
for better high availability outcomes.

Disaster Recovery

Recovery planning is frequently overlooked during business continuity
planning, but failure is always an option. Unfortunately, our experience
has shown us that typically, disaster recovery plans are only
implemented after suffering severe data loss or down-time. Business
critical environments must be prepared for the unexpected and Barman is
the right tool organisations can use to be prepared.

Now, through synchronous WAL streaming, Barman allows a Recovery Point
Objective (RPO) of 0. Barman now also supports PostgreSQL on Windows
(experimental) and Docker. Improved support of very large databases and
clusters is currently being developed for a future Barman release.

Professional Support for Barman

In addition to the disaster recovery and business continuity support
already available through 2ndQuadrant, as the developers of Barman, the
team at 2ndQuadrant provides superior support for Barman users. The
turnkey disaster recovery solution service includes architecture
analysis, installation, training and a final simulation with internal
personnel. 2ndQuadrant offers custom solutions, development of new
features, training, and 24/7 production support.

Upgrading from Barman 1.X

The 2.0 release requires that users explicitly configure their archiving
strategy. Before, the file based archiver controlled by the ‘archiver’
option was enabled by default. When you upgrade your Barman installation
to 2.0, make sure you add the appropriate line globally or for any
server that requires it. Barman using officially distributed RPM and
Debian packages will be automatically updated.

For installation or upgrade instructions, please see the "Links" section
below.

For the comprehensive release notes, please read "Barman 2.0 Release
Notes".

If you have any questions about Barman and disaster recovery scenarios
using Barman, you can reach the dev team using the community mailing
list.

To submit private inquiries regarding implementation, customised
features or sponsorship opportunities email the team directly at
info(at)pgbarman(dot)org(dot)

Links

- Website: http://www.pgbarman.org/
- Download: https://sourceforge.net/projects/pgbarman/files/2.0/
- Online Documentation: http://docs.pgbarman.org/release/2.0/
- Man page, section 1: http://docs.pgbarman.org/release/2.0/barman.1.html
- Man page, section 5: http://docs.pgbarman.org/release/2.0/barman.5.html
- Support: http://www.pgbarman.org/support/
- Client utilities for Barman: https://github.com/2ndquadrant-it/barman-cli
- pgespresso extension: https://github.com/2ndquadrant-it/pgespresso