Subject: Can use NFS mount partition for Pgbackrest Repo -path ?

From: KK CHN <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 19 Jun 2026 17:36:12 +0530

Hi folks,

I am using the repo1-path as follows   for the pgbackrest  backup of more
than 6 DB clusters in a single remote repo server as follows.

ON MY REPO SERVER

[global]
repo1-path=/data/DB_BACKUPS
repo1-block=y
repo1-bundle=y
repo1-retention-full=3
repo1-retention-diff=3
repo1-cipher-type=aes-256-cbc
repo1-cipher-pass=acbd

The issue here is The repo1-path =  /data/DB_BACKUPS directory is the local
file storage of this repo server (A Virtual Machine running RHEL 9.4,
pgbackrest 2.25.1, PG16) which is almost  83 %  full now.
.
Note:   */dev/mapper/rhel-data   15T   13T  2.6T  83% /data   is almost
getting full  and it is not possible to extend the local storage partition
further. *

*To overcome the storage space,   my sys admin added an NFS  mount point
from  an external storage as follows.*

10.255.254.113:/Data    51T  384K   50T   1% /datanew         this is with
50 TB space.

*My Query is  :*

 1. *Can I use this NFS mount point  /datanew  as the repo1-path for
pgbackrest  to overcome the storage space shortage ?   *

2. *What are the drawbacks  in doing this approach ?  *

 3. *What command line tool  to use  either   mv  or tar  command which is
advisable and fast for copying all the existing /data/DB_BACKUPS    archive
and backup folders of the currently running backups of the six different
production  Database clusters  to the new NFS mount point  /datanew  by
minimal downtime (If  the NFS mount point for repo1-path is
possible/advisable ?) *

4.  *Also  setting permissions  for the repo server user ( in my case it is
pgbackrest itself)  for the NFS mount point is straight forward or do I
need to set permissions differently  in the NFS server side and client VM
side also ?* ( sorry for ignorance).

PS: -  Any hints and directions much appreciated to correct myself, If I am
doing wrong/direction.

Thank you,
Krishane.

[root@dbbackup ~]# df -h
Filesystem             Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
devtmpfs               4.0M     0  4.0M   0% /dev
tmpfs                   16G     0   16G   0% /dev/shm
tmpfs                  6.3G  655M  5.7G  11% /run
/dev/mapper/rhel-root  100G   38G   63G  38% /

*/dev/mapper/rhel-data   15T   13T  2.6T  83% /data   // Getting full*/dev/sda2
             960M  265M  696M  28% /boot
/dev/sda1              599M  7.1M  592M   2% /boot/efi
tmpfs                  3.2G   36K  3.2G   1% /run/user/1001
tmpfs                  3.2G   60K  3.2G   1% /run/user/0

*10.255.254.113:/Data    51T  384K   50T   1% /datanew   // New NFS mount
point added 50T*tmpfs                  3.2G   52K  3.2G   1% /run/user/42
[root@dbbackup ~]#

---

From: Ron Johnson <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 19 Jun 2026 08:48:31 -0400

On Fri, Jun 19, 2026 at 7:58 AM KK CHN <[email-masked]> wrote:

> The issue here is The repo1-path =  /data/DB_BACKUPS directory is the
> local file storage of this repo server (A Virtual Machine running RHEL 9.4,
> pgbackrest 2.25.1
>

Those are pretty old.  Lots of security bugs have been patched since 9.4
was released.  And really useful features added to pgbackrest after 2.25.1.

> pgbackrest  to overcome the storage space shortage ?   *

Yes.

>  2. *What are the drawbacks  in doing this approach ?  *

You might occasionally have to stop pgbackrest and then restart the nfs
client daemon.

>  3. *What command line tool  to use  either   mv  or tar  command which
> is advisable and fast for copying all the existing /data/DB_BACKUPS
> archive and backup folders of the currently running backups of the six
> different production  Database clusters  to the new NFS mount point
> /datanew  by minimal downtime (If  the NFS mount point for repo1-path is
> possible/advisable ?) *
>

rsync.  That's always the solution.

Run it once (or twice or thrice) to move most of the data, then stop PG and
run it again to move the final bits of data and update pgbackrest.conf/

> 4.  *Also  setting permissions  for the repo server user ( in my case it
> is pgbackrest itself)  for the NFS mount point is straight forward or do I

You'll see soon enough, if the rsync fails with a "permission denied" error.

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