backup postgresql via docker exec

Question

How would you go about taking automatic rotated backups of a postgresql database running inside a docker 1.3 container? I'm mostly interested in the overall approach vs. the details of actual the backup commands themselves.

I am thinking about updating this autobackup script, which has apparently been around since 2005. My current plan is

• Install the script in cron.daily on the docker host
• Have the script use direct local filesystem access for the rotation logic to handle the existence tests, mkdir and rm commands
• use docker exec containername to run the psql and pg_dump commands within the container, probably sending the stdout content to the docker host filesystem in the correct place via shell redirection

Answer 1

The autobackup script is nice but don't verget to make a backup of the users and passwords: pd_dumpall -g If you don't need seperate backups of each database inside postgresql, it's eysier to use pg_dumpall.