`vmbackup` creates VictoriaMetrics data backups from [instant snapshots](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/blob/master/README.md#how-to-work-with-snapshots).
* Any S3-compatible storage such as [MinIO](https://github.com/minio/minio), [Ceph](https://docs.ceph.com/docs/mimic/radosgw/s3/) or [Swift](https://www.swiftstack.com/docs/admin/middleware/s3_middleware.html). See [these docs](#advanced-usage) for details.
`vmbackup` supports incremental and full backups. Incremental backups created automatically if the destination path already contains data from the previous backup.
Full backups can be sped up with `-origin` pointing to already existing backup on the same remote storage. In this case `vmbackup` makes server-side copy for the shared
*`</path/to/victoria-metrics-data>` - path to VictoriaMetrics data pointed by `-storageDataPath` command-line flag in single-node VictoriaMetrics or in cluster `vmstorage`.
There is no need to stop VictoriaMetrics for creating backups, since they are performed from immutable [instant snapshots](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/blob/master/README.md#how-to-work-with-snapshots).
*`<local-snapshot>` is the snapshot to back up. See [how to create instant snapshots](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/blob/master/README.md#how-to-work-with-snapshots).
*`<bucket>` is an already existing name for [GCS bucket](https://cloud.google.com/storage/docs/creating-buckets).
Where `<latest-snapshot>` is the latest [snapshot](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/blob/master/README.md#how-to-work-with-snapshots).
The command will upload only changed data to `gcs://<bucket>/latest`.
Where `<daily-snapshot>` is the snapshot for the last day `<YYYYMMDD>`.
This apporach saves network bandwidth costs on hourly backups (since they are incremental) and allows recovering data from either the last hour (`latest` backup)
or from any day (`YYYYMMDD` backups). Note that hourly backup shouldn't run when creating daily backup.
Do not forget removing old snapshots and backups when they are no longer needed for saving storage costs.
1. Collect information about files in the `-snapshotName`, in the `-dst` and in the `-origin`.
2. Determine files in `-dst`, which are missing in `-snapshotName`, and delete them. These are usually small files, which are already merged into bigger files in the snapshot.
3. Determine files from `-snapshotName`, which are missing in `-dst`. These are usually small new files and bigger merged files.
4. Determine files from step 3, which exist in the `-origin`, and perform server-side copy of these files from `-origin` to `-dst`.
- Smaller files have higher probability to be merged.
- Consecutive snapshots share many identical files.
These properties allow performing fast and cheap incremental backups and server-side copying from `-origin` paths.
See [this article](https://medium.com/@valyala/speeding-up-backups-for-big-time-series-databases-533c1a927883) for more details.
`vmbackup` can work improperly or slowly when these properties are violated.
### Troubleshooting
* If the backup is slow, then try setting higher value for `-concurrency` flag. This will increase the number of concurrent workers that upload data to backup storage.
* If `vmbackup` eats all the network bandwidth, then set `-maxBytesPerSecond` to the desired value.
* If `vmbackup` has been interrupted due to temporary error, then just restart it with the same args. It will resume the backup process.
Profile name for S3 configs. If no set, the value of the environment variable will be loaded (AWS_PROFILE or AWS_DEFAULT_PROFILE), or if both not set, DefaultSharedConfigProfile is used
Path to file with GCS or S3 credentials. Credentials are loaded from default locations if not set.
See https://cloud.google.com/iam/docs/creating-managing-service-account-keys and https://docs.aws.amazon.com/general/latest/gr/aws-security-credentials.html
-customS3Endpoint string
Custom S3 endpoint for use with S3-compatible storages (e.g. MinIO). S3 is used if not set
-dst string
Where to put the backup on the remote storage. Example: gcs://bucket/path/to/backup/dir, s3://bucket/path/to/backup/dir or fs:///path/to/local/backup/dir
-dst can point to the previous backup. In this case incremental backup is performed, i.e. only changed data is uploaded
Whether to enable reading flags from environment variables additionally to command line. Command line flag values have priority over values from environment vars. Flags are read only from command line if this flag isn't set
-envflag.prefix string
Prefix for environment variables if -envflag.enable is set
Whether to use pread() instead of mmap() for reading data files. By default mmap() is used for 64-bit arches and pread() is used for 32-bit arches, since they cannot read data files bigger than 2^32 bytes in memory. mmap() is usually faster for reading small data chunks than pread()
-loggerErrorsPerSecondLimit int
Per-second limit on the number of ERROR messages. If more than the given number of errors are emitted per second, then the remaining errors are suppressed. Zero value disables the rate limit (default 10)
Allowed size of system memory VictoriaMetrics caches may occupy. This option overrides -memory.allowedPercent if set to non-zero value. Too low value may increase cache miss rate, which usually results in higher CPU and disk IO usage. Too high value may evict too much data from OS page cache, which will result in higher disk IO usage
Allowed percent of system memory VictoriaMetrics caches may occupy. See also -memory.allowedBytes. Too low value may increase cache miss rate, which usually results in higher CPU and disk IO usage. Too high value may evict too much data from OS page cache, which will result in higher disk IO usage (default 60)
VictoriaMetrics create snapshot url. When this is given a snapshot will automatically be created during backup. Example: http://victoriametrics:8428/snaphsot/create
VictoriaMetrics delete snapshot url. Optional. Will be generated from -snapshot.createURL if not provided. All created snaphosts will be automatically deleted. Example: http://victoriametrics:8428/snaphsot/delete
by setting it via `<ROOT_IMAGE>` environment variable. For example, the following command builds the image on top of [scratch](https://hub.docker.com/_/scratch) image:
