PostgreSQL database backup to provide to Clarity Support

Products

• Clarity PPM On Premise
• Clarity PPM SaaS

Issue/Introduction

You have been requested to provide a database backup for your Clarity PostgreSQL (PG) database. How to provide it? 

Environment

All Supported Clarity Releases with PostgreSQL

Resolution

Provide a "folder backup" or a "directory backup" to Clarity Support for restore.

Steps:

To create a directory-format backup of a specific schema,  use the pg_dump command.

pg_dump -h <host> -p <port> -U <username> -d <database_name> -n <schema_name> -F d -f <output_directory_name> -j 4

Explanation of options:

• -h, -p, -U, -d: Standard connection parameters (host, port, username, target database).
• -n <schema_name>: Specifies that only this specific schema should be backed up.
• -F d: Sets the output format to directory (this is what enables parallel processing).
• -f <output_directory_name>: The name of the folder pg_dump will create. Note: This folder must not already exist; PostgreSQL will create it during the dump.
• -j 4 (Optional but recommended): Runs the backup using 4 parallel jobs, significantly speeding up the process for large databases.

Example command: pg_dump -h localhost -U postgres -d clarity -n clarity -F d -f /backups/clarity_schema_dump -j 4

 

Note: Use pg_dump for the exact supported PostgreSQL version. For example, if you export a database schema for PostgreSQL 16, you need to use pg_dump from the same version. Do not use later versions to export the dataset