The Best Barman Ever

This is my (very) biased opinion, but I am ready to bet that once you try Barman 2.0 you’ll agree with me.

Version 2.0 takes Barman to a new level, thanks to full support of PostgreSQL’s streaming replication protocol for both backup operations, continuous, and synchronous WAL shipping.

You might ask – what does this mean exactly? Well, I will give you some examples:

• You can now safely have zero data loss PostgreSQL clusters with just one standby!
• You can integrate Barman with Docker in a much easier way!
• You can now backup PostgreSQL servers that run on Windows (experimentally)!

Of course, you can also continue to rely on rsync/SSH for backup and WAL archiving, if you prefer.

Also, thanks to the new “barman-cli” package, which delivers the “barman-wal-restore” tool, Barman sits at the heart of your PostgreSQL clusters and better integrates with any standby server. We are also working with our fellow repmgr developers to improve the integration between these two critical tools for PostgreSQL business continuity delivered by 2ndQuadrant.

Barman 2.0 is the product of months of development and effort by our devops team at 2ndQuadrant.

The amount of code that has been developed is relevant. However, the hardest job has been to test the different options that Barman offers for backup and WAL archiving with all the supported versions of PostgreSQL, including the new release of PostgreSQL 9.6. Without a true devops culture, which nurtures cooperation and collaboration and promotes global goals, we would have never been able to build the continuous integration pipeline that rigorously and automatically verifies Barman’s capabilities for backup, recovery, archiving, and so on.

As project leader, I would like to thank everyone on the team for their fantastic contributions and for what we are working on for the future.

In particular, improved performance on VLDBs and taking managing backups of PostgreSQL servers to a whole new level!

And that’s why I think this is the best Barman ever. ( So far anyways 😉 )

Now… let’s all go get a well-deserved espresso from our favourite bar downstairs in Prato. Salute!