WAL-G for MongoDB

Interface of MongoDB features is currently unstable

You can use wal-g as a tool for making encrypted, compressed MongoDB backups and push/fetch them to/from storage without saving it on your filesystem.

Configuration

  • WALG_STREAM_CREATE_COMMAND

Command to create MongoDB backup, should return backup as single stream to STDOUT. Required for backup procedure.

  • WALG_STREAM_RESTORE_COMMAND

Command to unpack MongoDB backup, should take backup (created by WALG_STREAM_CREATE_COMMAND) to STDIN and push it to MongoDB instance. Required for restore procedure.

  • MONGODB_URI

URI used to connect to a MongoDB instance. Required for backup and oplog archiving procedure.

  • MONGODB_RESTORE_DISABLE_HOST_RESETUP

Do not perform any MongoDB reconfiguration steps during binary-backup-fetch. Usefull when one might want just to restore original host state.

  • OPLOG_ARCHIVE_AFTER_SIZE

Oplog archive batch in bytes which triggers upload to storage.

  • OPLOG_ARCHIVE_TIMEOUT_INTERVAL

Time interval (passed since previous upload) to trigger upload to storage.

Format: golang duration string.

  • MONGODB_LAST_WRITE_UPDATE_INTERVAL

Interval to update the latest majority optime. wal-g archives only majority committed operations. Format: golang duration string.

  • OPLOG_PUSH_WAIT_FOR_BECOME_PRIMARY

Wait for primary and start archiving or exit immediately. Archiving works only on primary, but it's useful to run wal-g on all replicaset nodes with OPLOG_PUSH_WAIT_FOR_BECOME_PRIMARY: true to handle replica set elections. Then new primary will catch up archiving after elections.

  • OPLOG_PITR_DISCOVERY_INTERVAL

Defines the longest possible point-in-time recovery period. It's lasts from starting timestamp of the oldest backup (within OPLOG_PITR_DISCOVERY_INTERVAL) until now. Setting is used by oplog archives purging.

Format: golang duration string.

  • OPLOG_PUSH_STATS_ENABLED

Enables statistics collecting of oplog archiving procedure.

  • OPLOG_PUSH_STATS_UPDATE_INTERVAL

Interval to update oplog archiving statistics. Disabled if reset to 0.

  • OPLOG_PUSH_STATS_LOGGING_INTERVAL

Interval to log oplog archiving statistics. Disabled if reset to 0. Format: golang duration string.

  • OPLOG_PUSH_STATS_EXPOSE_HTTP

Exposes http-handler with oplog archiving statistics: stats/oplog_push. HTTP-server listens HTTP_LISTEN port (default: 8090).

Usage

WAL-G mongodb extension currently supports these commands:

backup-push

Creates new logical backup and send it to storage.

Runs WALG_STREAM_CREATE_COMMAND to create backup.

wal-g backup-push

binary-backup-push

Creates new binary backup and send it to storage.

This command uses backup cursors functionality of WiredTiger to get list of files in local file system, that stay locked while backup cursor is opened. Applications may continue to read and write the databases while a binary snapshot is taken.

Note: In this mvp version we support replicaset cluster only (non sharded).

This functionality inspired by article Experimental Feature: $backupCursorExtend in Percona Server for MongoDB

wal-g binary-backup-push

backup-list

Lists currently available backups in storage.

wal-g backup-list

backup-fetch

Fetches backup from storage and restores passes data to WALG_STREAM_RESTORE_COMMAND to restore backup.

Command can restore logical backup that was created by backup-push command.

User should specify the name of the backup to fetch.

wal-g backup-fetch example_backup

binary-backup-fetch

Fetches backup from storage and restores to mongodb dbPath while mongodb is stopped.

Command can restore backup that was created by binary-backup-push command. Before command execution user should stop mongod service (service mongodb stop). Then user should run command with parameters: * name of the backup to fetch * path to mongod config to get storage setting (like directoryPerDB and wiredTiger.collectionConfig.blockCompressor) * mongod version to check compatibility binary data of mongod

After successful command execution user should start mongod process (service mongodb start) and re-initiate replset (rs.initiate()) because of command remove replset config.

For more information see article Experimental Feature: $backupCursorExtend in Percona Server for MongoDB

wal-g binary-backup-fetch example_backup mongod_config_path mongod_version

backup-show

Fetches backup metadata from storage to STDOUT.

User should specify the name of the backup to show.

# wal-g backup-show stream_20201027T224823Z
{
       "BackupName": "stream_20201027T224823Z",
       "DataSize": 18952713762,
       "FinishLocalTime": "2020-10-28T02:08:55.966741+03:00",
       "MongoMeta": {
           "After": {
               "LastMajTS": {
                   "Inc": 34,
                   "TS": 1603840135
               },
               "LastTS": {
                   "Inc": 34,
                   "TS": 1603840135
               }
           },
           "Before": {
               "LastMajTS": {
                   "Inc": 4,
                   "TS": 1603838903
               },
               "LastTS": {
                   "Inc": 4,
                   "TS": 1603838903
               }
           }
       },
       "Permanent": false,
       "StartLocalTime": "2020-10-28T01:48:23.121314+03:00"
}

backup-delete

Deletes backup from storage.

User should specify the name of the backup to delete.

Dry-run

wal-g backup-delete example_backup

Perform delete

wal-g backup-delete example_backup --confirm

oplog-push

Fetches oplog from mongodb instance (MONGODB_URI) and uploads to storage.

wal-g forces upload when, - archive batch exceeds OPLOG_ARCHIVE_AFTER_SIZE bytes - passes OPLOG_ARCHIVE_TIMEOUT_INTERVAL since previous upload

Archiving collects writes if optime is readable by majority reads. Optime is updated every MONGODB_LAST_WRITE_UPDATE_INTERVAL.

wal-g oplog-push

Note: archiving works only on primary, but you can run it on any replicaset node using config option OPLOG_PUSH_WAIT_FOR_BECOME_PRIMARY: true.

oplog-replay

Fetches oplog archives from storage and applies to mongodb instance (MONGODB_URI)

User should specify SINCE and UNTIL boundaries (format: timestamp.inc, eg 1593554809.32). Both of them should exist in storage. SINCE is included and UNTIL is NOT.

wal-g oplog-replay 1593554109.1 1593559109.1

Common constraints:

  • SINCE: operation timestamp before full backup started.
  • UNTIL: operation timestamp after backup finished.

Use MongoMeta.Before.LastMajTS and MongoMeta.After.LastMajTS fields from backup metadata.

oplog-fetch

Fetches oplog archives from storage and passes to STDOUT.

User should specify SINCE and UNTIL boundaries (format: timestamp.inc, eg 1593554809.32). Both of them should exist in storage. SINCE is included and UNTIL is NOT.

Supported formats to output: json, bson, bson-raw

wal-g oplog-fetch 1593554109.1 1593559109.1 --format json

oplog-purge

Purges outdated oplog archives from storage. Clean-up will retain: - oplog archives in PITR interval - oplog archives within backup creation period

Dry-run

wal-g oplog-purge

Perform clean-up

wal-g oplog-purge --confirm

Typical configurations

Full backup/restore only

Here's typical wal-g configuration for that case:

MONGODB_URI:                 'mongodb://user:password@localhost:27018/?authSource=admin&connect=direct&socketTimeoutMS=60000&connectTimeoutMS=10000&tls=true'
WALG_STREAM_CREATE_COMMAND:  'mongodump --archive --oplog --uri="mongodb://user:password@localhost:27018/?authSource=admin&connectTimeoutMS=10000&tls=true"'
WALG_STREAM_RESTORE_COMMAND: 'mongorestore --archive --oplogReplay --uri="mongodb://user:password@localhost:27018/?authSource=admin&connectTimeoutMS=10000&tls=true"'

You may also add --drop option to restore command. This option drops the collections from the target database before restoring the collections from the dumped backup. Thus extra care should be exercised.

Continuous archiving and point-in-time recovery

Here's typical wal-g configuration for that case:

# Used to fetch oplog documents
MONGODB_URI:                 'mongodb://user:password@localhost:27018/?authSource=admin&connect=direct&socketTimeoutMS=60000&connectTimeoutMS=10000&tls=true'

# Archiving triggers
OPLOG_ARCHIVE_TIMEOUT_INTERVAL: '30s'
OPLOG_ARCHIVE_AFTER_SIZE:       '20971520'

# Oplog-purge setting: retain oplog archives uploaded before the oldest backup created during last 7 days
OPLOG_PITR_DISCOVERY_INTERVAL: '168h'

# Run and wait for become primary (usefull to run on all secondaries)
OPLOG_PUSH_WAIT_FOR_BECOME_PRIMARY: 'true'

# Collect statistics on archiving process
OPLOG_PUSH_STATS_ENABLED:           'true'
OPLOG_PUSH_STATS_UPDATE_INTERVAL:   '25s'
# log with interval
OPLOG_PUSH_STATS_LOGGING_INTERVAL:  '30s'
# expose via http "/stats/oplog_push"
OPLOG_PUSH_STATS_EXPOSE_HTTP:       'true'

# Full backup/restore settings
WALG_STREAM_CREATE_COMMAND:  'mongodump --archive --uri="mongodb://user:password@localhost:27018/?authSource=admin&connectTimeoutMS=10000&tls=true"'
WALG_STREAM_RESTORE_COMMAND: 'mongorestore --archive --uri="mongodb://user:password@localhost:27018/?authSource=admin&connectTimeoutMS=10000&tls=true"'

How to restore backup to point in time

Suppose you want to restore your cluster to 2020-10-28T12:11:10+03:00.

# wal-g backup-list -v
name                    finish_local_time         ts_before     ts_after      data_size   permanent
stream_20201025T222118Z 2020-10-26T01:50:17+03:00 1603664478.21 1603666217.6  18521875261 false
stream_20201026T220833Z 2020-10-27T01:37:42+03:00 1603750113.39 1603751861.6  18552792676 false
stream_20201027T224823Z 2020-10-28T02:08:55+03:00 1603838903.4  1603840135.34 18952713762 false

Pick the closest backup and restore it (don't forget about constraints):

# wal-g backup-fetch stream_20201027T224823Z

Replay oplog from backup ts_before to 2020-10-28T12:11:10+03:00:

# wal-g oplog-replay 1603838903.4 1603876270.1