Google Cloud Storage

To use Google Cloud Storage (GCS) for backups, configure a pgBackRest repository in backups.pgbackrest.repos and provide:

• A GCS bucket name which you will reference in the gcs.bucket option under the repository entry
• A Google service account key, which the Operator will use to access the storage.

Configuration steps

The following example configuration uses the repo3 repository name.

1. Create a service account key following the Google Cloud instructions .

2. Download the key from the Google Cloud console (IAM & Admin → Service Accounts → your account → KEYS → ADD KEY → Create new key → JSON). The downloaded file is typically named gcs-key.json.

   

3. Prepare the Secret data:

   • Create gcs.conf for repository repo3:

     [global]
     repo3-gcs-key=/etc/pgbackrest/conf.d/gcs-key.json
     

   • Encode both gcs-key.json and gcs.conf files using base64:

     Linux macOS

     base64 --wrap=0 <filename>
     

     base64 -i <filename>
     

   • Create the Secret manifest. For example, cluster1-pgbackrest-secrets.yaml:

     apiVersion: v1
     kind: Secret
     metadata:
       name: cluster1-pgbackrest-secrets
     type: Opaque
     data:
       gcs-key.json: <base64-encoded-json-file-contents>
       gcs.conf: <base64-encoded-conf-file-contents>
     

     You can store credentials for several repositories in one Secret by adding separate data keys.

4. Apply the Secret. Replace <namespace> with your namespace:

   kubectl apply -f cluster1-pgbackrest-secrets.yaml -n <namespace>
   

5. Update deploy/cr.yaml Custom Resource manifest:

   • Reference the Secret in backups.pgbackrest.configuration
   • Provide the backup path in backups.pgbackrest.global with the pgBackRest path option. The repository name must match the name in gcs.conf (repo3-path in this example)
   • Define the GCS bucket under repos.

   ...
   backups:
     pgbackrest:
       ...
       configuration:
         - secret:
             name: cluster1-pgbackrest-secrets
       ...
       global:
         repo3-path: /pgbackrest/postgres-operator/cluster1/repo3
       ...
       repos:
       - name: repo3
         gcs:
           bucket: "<YOUR_GCS_BUCKET_NAME>"
   

6. Apply the cluster Custom Resource. Replace the <namespace> placeholder with your value:

   kubectl apply -f deploy/cr.yaml -n <namespace>
   

Next steps

Make an on-demand backup Make a scheduled backup

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Last update: May 22, 2026
Created: May 22, 2026