Database Backups

Database backups are useful for restoring data and are required for satisfying HIPAA/NIST CSF disaster recovery requirements. The Healthcare Blocks managed database service automatically handles daily backups, which are compressed, encrypted, and stored in a separate Cloud service, Amazon S3.

Default Backup Policy

A nightly backup runs every midnight PST (-8 UTC). Retention is based on the following policy:

  • Daily backups are retained for 7 days
  • Weekly backups, generated on Sundays, are retained for 5 weeks
  • Monthly backups, generated on the 1st day of the month, are retained for 72 months

The above schedule is customizable, and other backup intervals can be added. Please create a ticket if you require any customizations.

Retrieving Backups from Amazon S3

Amazon S3 CLI Reference

Please create a support ticket to obtain your database backups bucket name.

Listing backup folders

aws s3 ls s3://bucket_name

Listing contents of a specific folder

aws s3 ls s3://bucket_name/daily/

Downloading a specific backup file

aws s3 cp s3://bucket_name/daily/backup.gz /local/path/

Extracting a Backup File

Backup files are compressed (gzip) and have a .gz extension. To extract the SQL file, run the following command:

gunzip backup.gz

Restoring a Backup

See Importing a Database

Creating an On-Demand Backup

Please create a support ticket if you'd like Healthcare Blocks to generate an on-demand backup.