In my new project cashflow I use a PostgreSQL database to persist the data. This data is the main asset of the application.

Therefore it’s necessary to run a scheduled backup to avoid data loss. But it’s only a hobby project and in the beginning, I just want to have a simple solution.

I added a cron job at my virtual private server that hosts my project docker container. This job just creates a dump of the database using a postgres container with pg_dump. Nothing more.

sudo apt install cron
sudo systemctl enable cron
crontab -e

// add backup statement
// if timestamps like %d are used, you have to escape them with  => %d
0 4 * * * docker run -i postgres /usr/bin/pg_dump postgres://<user>:<password>@<host>:<port>/<database> > <directory>/dump-"`date +"%d-%m-%Y-%H-%M"`".sql

crontab -l

This creates a dump of my database at 4 a.m.

Consider:

• A dump isn’t encrypted
• Old dumps aren’t deleted (growing disk usage)