Backup Environment Variables

Environment variables for configuring automatic database backups before migrations.

Overview
Configuration Approaches
1. Dot-Notation (Recommended)
2. JSON Format
Variables
Complete Examples
Filename Examples
Restore Operations
Source Code

Overview

Backup environment variables control automatic database backups created before migration execution, providing safety and rollback capability.

Key Features:

Automatic backups before migrations
Flexible filename customization
Configurable retention policies
Restore from existing backups

Configuration Approaches

Dot-Notation (Recommended)

Configure individual properties:

export MSR_BACKUP_FOLDER=./backups
export MSR_BACKUP_TIMESTAMP=true
export MSR_BACKUP_DELETE_BACKUP=false
export MSR_BACKUP_PREFIX=db-backup

JSON Format

Configure all settings at once:

export MSR_BACKUP='{
  "folder": "./backups",
  "timestamp": true,
  "deleteBackup": false,
  "prefix": "db-backup",
  "timestampFormat": "YYYY-MM-DD-HH-mm-ss"
}'

Priority: Dot-notation variables override JSON configuration.

Variables

MSR_BACKUP

Complete backup configuration as JSON

Type: JSON object
Default: None
Example: See JSON Format above

Alternative to dot-notation variables. Provides complete backup configuration in a single variable.

export MSR_BACKUP='{"folder":"./backups","timestamp":true,"deleteBackup":false}'

JSON Schema:

{
  folder?: string;              // Backup directory
  timestamp?: boolean;          // Include timestamp
  deleteBackup?: boolean;       // Delete after success
  prefix?: string;              // Filename prefix
  custom?: string;              // Custom component
  suffix?: string;              // Filename suffix
  timestampFormat?: string;     // Timestamp format
  extension?: string;           // File extension
  existingBackupPath?: string;  // Path for restore
}

Programmatic Equivalent:

config.backup = new BackupConfig();
config.backup.folder = './backups';
config.backup.timestamp = true;

MSR_BACKUP_FOLDER

Backup files directory

Type: string
Default: ./backups
Example: ./database/backups, /var/backups/db

Directory where backup files are created. Created automatically if it doesn’t exist.

export MSR_BACKUP_FOLDER=./database/backups

Programmatic Equivalent:

config.backup.folder = './database/backups';

Permissions:

Directory must be writable by the application
Consider disk space for production databases
Should be on reliable storage with sufficient capacity

See Also:

Backup Settings

MSR_BACKUP_TIMESTAMP

Include timestamp in filename

Type: boolean
Default: true
Example: true, false

Controls whether timestamp is included in backup filename.

# With timestamp (default)
export MSR_BACKUP_TIMESTAMP=true
# Result: backup-2024-01-15-14-30-45.bkp

# Without timestamp
export MSR_BACKUP_TIMESTAMP=false
# Result: backup.bkp

Programmatic Equivalent:

config.backup.timestamp = true;

Use Cases:

true - Keep multiple backups, historical tracking
false - Only keep latest backup, save disk space

MSR_BACKUP_DELETE_BACKUP

Delete backup after successful migration

Type: boolean
Default: true
Example: true, false

Controls whether backup is deleted after successful migration.

# Delete after success (default)
export MSR_BACKUP_DELETE_BACKUP=true

# Keep backups
export MSR_BACKUP_DELETE_BACKUP=false

Programmatic Equivalent:

config.backup.deleteBackup = true;

Behavior:

Migration Result	`true`	`false`
Success	🗑️ Delete	✅ Keep
Failure	✅ Keep	✅ Keep

Use Cases:

true - Production (automatic cleanup)
false - Development, compliance, audit requirements

MSR_BACKUP_PREFIX

Filename prefix

Type: string
Default: backup
Example: db-backup, prod-backup, myapp

Prefix component of backup filename.

export MSR_BACKUP_PREFIX=prod-backup
# Result: prod-backup-2024-01-15-14-30-45.bkp

Programmatic Equivalent:

config.backup.prefix = 'prod-backup';

Filename Format:

{prefix}[-{custom}][-{timestamp}][{suffix}].{extension}

Examples:

Configuration	Filename
prefix: `backup`	`backup-2024-01-15.bkp`
prefix: `db-backup`	`db-backup-2024-01-15.bkp`
prefix: `prod`	`prod-2024-01-15.bkp`

MSR_BACKUP_CUSTOM

Custom filename component

Type: string
Default: '' (empty)
Example: production, staging, v1.2.0

Custom component inserted into backup filename between prefix and timestamp.

export MSR_BACKUP_PREFIX=backup
export MSR_BACKUP_CUSTOM=production
# Result: backup-production-2024-01-15-14-30-45.bkp

Programmatic Equivalent:

config.backup.custom = 'production';

Use Cases:

Environment identification: production, staging, dev
Version tracking: v1.2.0, release-2024-01
Custom identifiers: customer-name, tenant-id

Examples:

prefix	custom	timestamp	Result
`backup`	`prod`	`2024-01-15`	`backup-prod-2024-01-15.bkp`
`db`	`v1.2.0`	`2024-01-15`	`db-v1.2.0-2024-01-15.bkp`

MSR_BACKUP_SUFFIX

Filename suffix

Type: string
Default: '' (empty)
Example: -pre-migration, -before-update

Suffix component appended before file extension.

export MSR_BACKUP_SUFFIX=-pre-migration
# Result: backup-2024-01-15-14-30-45-pre-migration.bkp

Programmatic Equivalent:

config.backup.suffix = '-pre-migration';

Note: Suffix should include leading dash if desired.

MSR_BACKUP_TIMESTAMP_FORMAT

Timestamp format

Type: string (Moment.js format)
Default: YYYY-MM-DD-HH-mm-ss
Example: YYYYMMDD-HHmmss, YYYY-MM-DD

Moment.js format string for backup timestamp.

# Default format
export MSR_BACKUP_TIMESTAMP_FORMAT=YYYY-MM-DD-HH-mm-ss
# Result: backup-2024-01-15-14-30-45.bkp

# Compact format
export MSR_BACKUP_TIMESTAMP_FORMAT=YYYYMMDD-HHmmss
# Result: backup-20240115-143045.bkp

# Date only
export MSR_BACKUP_TIMESTAMP_FORMAT=YYYY-MM-DD
# Result: backup-2024-01-15.bkp

Programmatic Equivalent:

config.backup.timestampFormat = 'YYYY-MM-DD-HH-mm-ss';

Common Formats:

Format	Example	Use Case
`YYYY-MM-DD-HH-mm-ss`	`2024-01-15-14-30-45`	Full precision (default)
`YYYYMMDD-HHmmss`	`20240115-143045`	Compact format
`YYYY-MM-DD`	`2024-01-15`	Daily backups
`YYYY-MM-DD-HH`	`2024-01-15-14`	Hourly backups

See Also:

Moment.js Format Documentation

MSR_BACKUP_EXTENSION

File extension

Type: string
Default: bkp
Example: bak, backup, sql, dump

File extension for backup files (without leading dot).

export MSR_BACKUP_EXTENSION=sql
# Result: backup-2024-01-15-14-30-45.sql

Programmatic Equivalent:

config.backup.extension = 'sql';

Common Extensions:

Extension	Use Case
`bkp`	Generic backup (default)
`bak`	Alternative backup extension
`sql`	SQL dump files
`dump`	Database dump files
`tar.gz`	Compressed archives

Note: Do not include the leading dot.

MSR_BACKUP_EXISTING_BACKUP_PATH

Path to existing backup for restore

Type: string
Default: undefined
Example: ./backups/backup-2024-01-15.bkp

Path to existing backup file for restore operations.

export MSR_BACKUP_EXISTING_BACKUP_PATH=./backups/backup-2024-01-15.bkp

Programmatic Equivalent:

config.backup.existingBackupPath = './backups/backup-2024-01-15.bkp';

Use Cases:

Restore from specific backup
Disaster recovery
Environment synchronization

See Also:

Complete Examples

Development Environment

Keep all backups for safety:

export MSR_BACKUP_FOLDER=./backups
export MSR_BACKUP_TIMESTAMP=true
export MSR_BACKUP_DELETE_BACKUP=false
export MSR_BACKUP_PREFIX=dev-backup

Production Environment

Automatic cleanup with environment identification:

export MSR_BACKUP_FOLDER=/var/backups/database
export MSR_BACKUP_PREFIX=backup
export MSR_BACKUP_CUSTOM=production
export MSR_BACKUP_TIMESTAMP=true
export MSR_BACKUP_TIMESTAMP_FORMAT=YYYY-MM-DD-HH-mm-ss
export MSR_BACKUP_DELETE_BACKUP=true
export MSR_BACKUP_EXTENSION=bkp

CI/CD Pipeline

Compact backups with build identification:

export MSR_BACKUP_FOLDER=./build/backups
export MSR_BACKUP_PREFIX=ci
export MSR_BACKUP_CUSTOM=${BUILD_NUMBER}
export MSR_BACKUP_TIMESTAMP=false
export MSR_BACKUP_DELETE_BACKUP=false

Docker Configuration

ENV MSR_BACKUP_FOLDER=/var/backups \
    MSR_BACKUP_PREFIX=docker-backup \
    MSR_BACKUP_TIMESTAMP=true \
    MSR_BACKUP_DELETE_BACKUP=true \
    MSR_BACKUP_EXTENSION=bkp

Kubernetes ConfigMap

apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: msr-backup-config
data:
  MSR_BACKUP_FOLDER: "/var/backups/database"
  MSR_BACKUP_PREFIX: "k8s-backup"
  MSR_BACKUP_CUSTOM: "production"
  MSR_BACKUP_TIMESTAMP: "true"
  MSR_BACKUP_TIMESTAMP_FORMAT: "YYYY-MM-DD-HH-mm-ss"
  MSR_BACKUP_DELETE_BACKUP: "true"
  MSR_BACKUP_EXTENSION: "bkp"

Using JSON Format

Complete configuration in single variable:

export MSR_BACKUP='{
  "folder": "/var/backups/database",
  "prefix": "backup",
  "custom": "production",
  "timestamp": true,
  "timestampFormat": "YYYY-MM-DD-HH-mm-ss",
  "deleteBackup": true,
  "extension": "bkp"
}'

Filename Examples

Based on different configurations:

Configuration	Filename
Default	`backup-2024-01-15-14-30-45.bkp`
Custom prefix	`db-backup-2024-01-15-14-30-45.bkp`
With custom component	`backup-production-2024-01-15-14-30-45.bkp`
With suffix	`backup-2024-01-15-14-30-45-pre-migration.bkp`
Different extension	`backup-2024-01-15-14-30-45.sql`
No timestamp	`backup.bkp`
Compact timestamp	`backup-20240115-143045.bkp`
Full customization	`prod-v1.2.0-20240115-143045-pre-update.sql`

Restore Operations

To restore from an existing backup:

# Specify the backup file to restore
export MSR_BACKUP_EXISTING_BACKUP_PATH=./backups/backup-2024-01-15.bkp

# Run restore operation (programmatically)
# executor.restore()

See Also:

Backup & Restore Workflows

Source Code

TypeScript enum definition: src/model/env/BackupEnvVars.ts

Backup Environment Variables

Table of Contents

Overview

Configuration Approaches

Dot-Notation (Recommended)

JSON Format

Variables

MSR_BACKUP

MSR_BACKUP_FOLDER

MSR_BACKUP_TIMESTAMP

MSR_BACKUP_DELETE_BACKUP

MSR_BACKUP_PREFIX

MSR_BACKUP_CUSTOM

MSR_BACKUP_SUFFIX

MSR_BACKUP_TIMESTAMP_FORMAT

MSR_BACKUP_EXTENSION

MSR_BACKUP_EXISTING_BACKUP_PATH

Complete Examples

Development Environment

Production Environment

CI/CD Pipeline

Docker Configuration

Kubernetes ConfigMap

Using JSON Format

Filename Examples

Restore Operations

Source Code