Restore a MongoDB backup

MongoDB backups can only be restored to the same service they were created from.

To restore a backup:

1. Go to Backup > All backups and find the backup that you want to restore.
2. Click the arrow in the Actions column to check all the information for the backup, then click Restore from backup. This opens the Restore from backup dialog, with the Same service option automatically preselected. This is because, currently, MongoDB backups can only be restored to a service with identical properties.
3. If you are restoring a PITR backup, select the point for the date and time that you want to restore the database to.
4. Click Restore then go to the Restores tab to check the status of the restored backup.

Important

During restoring, PMM disables all the scheduled backup tasks for the current service. Remember to re-enable them manually after the restore.

Restore to a new cluster manually

1. Install MongoDB and Percona Backup for MongoDB. Pay attention to the versions. To minimize potential incompatibility, use the same versions that were used for taking backups. For instructions, see the PBM install documentation.

2. Configure your environment:

   • to restore to a new environment with the same replica set name, make sure that the replica set name in your new destination cluster use the same name as that in the cluster that was backed up.
     For more information, see Restoring a backup into a new-environment in the PBM documentation.
     

   • to restore logical backups to a new environment that has a different replica set name, configure the name mapping between the source and target environments.
     For the new environment, you can either set the PBM_REPLSET_REMAPPING environment variable for pbm CLI, or use the --replset-remapping flag for PBM commands.

     The mapping format is <rsTarget>=<rsSource>.

     For example:

     $ export PBM_REPLSET_REMAPPING="targetRS=sourceRS"

     OR

     $ pbm restore <timestamp> --replset-remapping="targetRS=sourceRS"

     For more information, see Restoring into a replica set with a different name in the PBM documentation.

3. Make sure that Percona Backup for MongoDB configuration in the new environment points to the remote storage defined for the original environment, including the authentication credentials for object stores.

   The easiest way to configure it is to create a config file, called, for example, pbm_config.yaml.

   For this, you can either copy the config from the source host or create a new one.

   To redirect the config output from the existing environment, use:

     pbm config >> pbm_config.yaml
   

   then copy the resulting file to the new environment.

   Here’s an example of config file content for AWS S3-compatible storage:

   storage:
     type: s3
     s3:
       region: us-west-2
       bucket: pbm-test-bucket
       prefix: backup_name_from_pmm
       credentials:
         access-key-id: <your-access-key-id-here>
         secret-access-key: <your-secret-key-here> 
   

   The prefix name is the artifact name that appears in the Backup name column, under Backup > All Backups page:

   

   To implement the config, use the following command:

   pbm config --file pbm_config.yaml
   

   For more information, see Restoring a backup into a new-environment in the PBM documentation.

4. Run pbm list to check if pbm is ready to perform the restore procedure.

5. Once all the backups made from the original environment are available, run the restore command:

   • For snapshot backups:

     a) run the following command:

     pbm list
       Backup snapshots: 2022-11-23T19:40:06Z [restore_to_time: 2021-01-13T15:53:40Z]
     

     b) provide the timestamp of the backup to the pbm command:

     pbm restore 2022-11-23T19:40:06Z

     For more information, see Restore a backup topic in the PBM documentation.

   • For PITR backups:

     a) run the following command:

       pbm list
       Backup snapshots:
         2022-11-23T19:40:06Z <logical> [restore_to_time: 2022-11-23T19:40:25Z]
         2022-11-23T19:45:07Z <logical> [restore_to_time: 2022-11-23T19:45:22Z]
       PITR <on>:
         2022-11-23T19:40:26Z - 2022-11-23T19:45:22Z
     

     b) provide the timestamp from one of the PITR ranges to the pbm command:

     pbm restore --time="2022-11-23T19:40:26

   For more information, see the Point-in-time Recovery topic in the PBM documentation.

6. Check the progress of the restore operation, using one of the commands below:

   • For logical restores: pbm describe-restore <restore_name>

   • For physical restores: pbm describe-restore --config=/path/to/pbm_config.yaml <restore_name>

   Required arguments:

   • PBM generates the <restore_name> information after you start the restoring.
   • The pbm_config.yaml file required for physical restores is the PBM config file that you provided for step 3.

Important

Make sure not to run pbm backup from the new environment while the Percona Backup for MongoDB config is pointing to the remote storage location of the original environment.

Restoring from a sharded cluster

Sharded cluster backups are supported starting with PMM 2.38 and PMM handles the backup process end-to-end. However, restoring such artifacts is currently possible only via the CLI, using Percona Backup for MongoDB.

For information on restoring sharded backups, check the PBM documentation

Contact us

For free technical help, visit the Percona Community Forum.

To report bugs or submit feature requests, open a JIRA ticket.

For paid support and managed or consulting services , contact Percona Sales.

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Last update: 2023-09-22