This script automates PostgreSQL database backups, compresses them, and optionally uploads them to an S3-compatible storage (e.g., AWS S3, Cloudflare R2). It supports multiple backup jobs configured via a single JSON file.

• Backup multiple PostgreSQL databases.
• Retry failed backups up to 5 times.
• Upload to AWS S3 or any S3-compatible service.
• Automatic cleanup of old local backups.

• bash
• pg_dump
• jq
• aws CLI

Create a config.json file in the same directory with the following structure:

[
  {
    "database_url": "postgresql://username:password@host:port/database",
    "backup_dir": "/path/to/local/backup/folder",
    "retention_days": 7,
    "s3_bucket": "your-s3-bucket-name",
    "aws_access_key_id": "YOUR_AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID",
    "aws_secret_access_key": "YOUR_AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY",
    "aws_region": "us-east-1",
    "s3_endpoint_url": "https://<optional-s3-endpoint>" // Optional for R2, MinIO, etc.
  }
]

You can add multiple entries in the array to back up multiple databases.

Make the script executable:

chmod +x backup.sh

Then run:

./backup.sh

• Dumps the database into a gzipped .sql.gz file in backup_dir.
• Retries up to 5 times if the pg_dump fails.
• Uploads the backup to the specified S3 bucket (if provided).
• Deletes backups older than retention_days.

=== Starting backup job 1/1 ===
Backing up database 'railway' to /home/user/backups/railway_20250524_152149.sql.gz ...
Backup created: /home/user/backups/railway_20250524_152149.sql.gz
Uploading to s3://my-database-backups/railway_20250524_152149.sql.gz ...
Upload successful
Deleting local backups older than 7 days in /home/user/backups ...
=== Finished backup job 1/1 ===

To run the backup daily at 2:00 AM:

crontab -e

Add the line:

0 2 * * * /path/to/backup.sh >> /path/to/backup.log 2>&1

• If aws_access_key_id or aws_secret_access_key are omitted, the script will use the default AWS credentials configured in your environment.
• If you don’t want to upload to S3, simply omit the s3_bucket field.