WAL archiving

Write-Ahead Log (WAL) archiving in CloudNativePG is the process of continuously shipping WAL files to a designated object store from the PostgreSQL primary. These archives are essential for enabling Point-In-Time Recovery (PITR) and are a foundational component for both object store and volume snapshot-based backup strategies.

Plugin-Based Architecture

CloudNativePG supports WAL archiving through a plugin-based mechanism, defined via the spec.pluginConfiguration section of the Cluster resource.

Only one plugin at a time can be responsible for WAL archiving. This is configured by setting the isWALArchiver field to true within the plugin configuration.

Supported Plugins

Currently, the Barman Cloud Plugin is the only officially supported WAL archiving plugin maintained by the CloudNativePG Community. For full documentation, configuration options, and best practices, see the Barman Cloud Plugin documentation.

Deprecation Notice: Native Barman Cloud

CloudNativePG still supports WAL archiving natively through the .spec.backup.barmanObjectStore field. While still functional, this interface is deprecated and will be removed in a future release.

If you are currently using the native .spec.backup.barmanObjectStore approach, refer to the official guide for a smooth transition: Migrating from Built-in CloudNativePG Backup.

About the archive timeout

By default, CloudNativePG sets archive_timeout to 5min, ensuring that WAL files, even in case of low workloads, are closed and archived at least every 5 minutes, providing a deterministic time-based value for your Recovery Point Objective (RPO).

Even though you change the value of the archive_timeout setting in the PostgreSQL configuration, our experience suggests that the default value set by the operator is suitable for most use cases.