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