Tigris Backup & Export

Back up databases, export application data, and archive files to Tigris. Covers automated backup pipelines, retention policies, and restore workflows for all major frameworks.

Prerequisites

Before doing anything else, install the Tigris CLI if it's not already available:

tigris help || npm install -g @tigrisdata/cli

If you need to install it, tell the user: "I'm installing the Tigris CLI (@tigrisdata/cli) so we can work with Tigris object storage."

Overview

Component	Purpose
Backup script	Dump database, compress, upload to Tigris
Scheduler	Run backups on a cron schedule
Retention	Delete old backups automatically (lifecycle rules)
Restore	Download and restore from a specific backup

Naming convention: backups/db/YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ.sql.gz

---

General Pattern

#!/bin/bash
# scripts/backup.sh
TIMESTAMP=$(date -u +"%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ")
BACKUP_FILE="backup-${TIMESTAMP}.sql.gz"
BUCKET="my-app-backups"

# Dump and compress
pg_dump "$DATABASE_URL" | gzip > "/tmp/$BACKUP_FILE"

# Upload to Tigris
tigris cp "/tmp/$BACKUP_FILE" "t3://$BUCKET/backups/db/$BACKUP_FILE"

# Clean up local file
rm "/tmp/$BACKUP_FILE"

echo "Backup uploaded: backups/db/$BACKUP_FILE"

For MySQL:

mysqldump -h "$DB_HOST" -u "$DB_USER" -p"$DB_PASS" "$DB_NAME" | gzip > "/tmp/$BACKUP_FILE"

---

Next.js / Express (Node.js)

import { exec } from "child_process";
import { promisify } from "util";
import { createReadStream } from "fs";
import { unlink } from "fs/promises";
import { put } from "@tigrisdata/storage";

const execAsync = promisify(exec);

async function backupDatabase() {
  const timestamp = new Date().toISOString().replace(/[:.]/g, "-");
  const filename = `backup-${timestamp}.sql.gz`;
  const localPath = `/tmp/${filename}`;

  // Dump and compress
  await execAsync(
    `pg_dump "${process.env.DATABASE_URL}" | gzip > "${localPath}"`,
  );

  // Upload to Tigris
  const stream = createReadStream(localPath);
  const result = await put(`backups/db/${filename}`, stream, {
    contentType: "application/gzip",
    multipart: true,
    config: { bucket: "my-app-backups" },
  });

  // Clean up
  await unlink(localPath);

  if (result.error) throw result.error;
  return result.data?.path;
}

Schedule with node-cron

import cron from "node-cron";

// Daily at 2 AM UTC
cron.schedule("0 2 * * *", async () => {
  try {
    const path = await backupDatabase();
    console.log(`Backup complete: ${path}`);
  } catch (error) {
    console.error("Backup failed:", error);
  }
});

---

Rails

Rake Task

Note: No native Tigris Ruby SDK exists yet. Uses aws-sdk-s3 pointed at Tigris.

# lib/tasks/backup.rake
namespace :db do
  desc "Backup database to Tigris"
  task backup: :environment do
    require "aws-sdk-s3"

    timestamp = Time.now.utc.strftime("%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ")
    filename = "backup-#{timestamp}.sql.gz"
    local_path = "/tmp/#{filename}"

    # Dump and compress
    db_config = ActiveRecord::Base.connection_db_config.configuration_hash
    system("pg_dump '#{db_config[:url] || build_pg_url(db_config)}' | gzip > '#{local_path}'")

    # Upload to Tigris
    s3 = Aws::S3::Client.new(
      endpoint: "https://t3.storage.dev",
      region: "auto",
      access_key_id: ENV["AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID"],
      secret_access_key: ENV["AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY"],
    )

    File.open(local_path, "rb") do |file|
      s3.put_object(
        bucket: ENV["TIGRIS_BACKUP_BUCKET"],
        key: "backups/db/#{filename}",
        body: file,
        content_type: "application/gzip",
      )
    end

    File.delete(local_path)
    puts "Backup uploaded: backups/db/#{filename}"
  end
end

Schedule with whenever

# config/schedule.rb (whenever gem)
every 1.day, at: "2:00 am" do
  rake "db:backup"
end

---

Django

Management Command

Uses tigris-boto3-ext (install: pip install tigris-boto3-ext).

# myapp/management/commands/dbbackup.py
import gzip
import subprocess
from datetime import datetime, timezone
from django.core.management.base import BaseCommand
from django.conf import settings
import boto3
from botocore.client import Config

class Command(BaseCommand):
    help = "Backup database to Tigris"

    def handle(self, *args, **options):
        timestamp = datetime.now(timezone.utc).strftime("%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ")
        filename = f"backup-{timestamp}.sql.gz"
        local_path = f"/tmp/{filename}"

        # Dump and compress
        db = settings.DATABASES["default"]
        dump_cmd = (
            f'pg_dump "postgresql://{db["USER"]}:{db["PASSWORD"]}'
            f'@{db["HOST"]}:{db["PORT"]}/{db["NAME"]}"'
        )
        with gzip.open(local_path, "wb") as f:
            result = subprocess.run(dump_cmd, shell=True, capture_output=True)
            f.write(result.stdout)

        # Upload to Tigris
        s3 = boto3.client(
            "s3",
            endpoint_url="https://t3.storage.dev",
            aws_access_key_id=settings.AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID,
            aws_secret_access_key=settings.AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY,
            region_name="auto",
            config=Config(s3={"addressing_style": "virtual"}),
        )
        s3.upload_file(
            local_path,
            settings.TIGRIS_BACKUP_BUCKET,
            f"backups/db/{filename}",
        )

        import os
        os.unlink(local_path)
        self.stdout.write(f"Backup uploaded: backups/db/{filename}")

python manage.py dbbackup

Schedule with celery-beat

# settings.py
CELERY_BEAT_SCHEDULE = {
    "daily-backup": {
        "task": "myapp.tasks.backup_database",
        "schedule": crontab(hour=2, minute=0),
    },
}

---

Laravel

Artisan Command

// app/Console/Commands/BackupDatabase.php
namespace App\Console\Commands;

use Illuminate\Console\Command;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Storage;

class BackupDatabase extends Command
{
    protected $signature = 'db:backup';
    protected $description = 'Backup database to Tigris';

    public function handle()
    {
        $timestamp = now()->utc()->format('Y-m-d\TH:i:s\Z');
        $filename = "backup-{$timestamp}.sql.gz";
        $localPath = "/tmp/{$filename}";

        // Dump and compress
        $dbUrl = config('database.connections.pgsql.url')
            ?? sprintf('postgresql://%s:%s@%s:%s/%s',
                config('database.connections.pgsql.username'),
                config('database.connections.pgsql.password'),
                config('database.connections.pgsql.host'),
                config('database.connections.pgsql.port'),
                config('database.connections.pgsql.database'),
            );

        exec("pg_dump \"{$dbUrl}\" | gzip > \"{$localPath}\"");

        // Upload to Tigris
        Storage::disk('tigris')->put(
            "backups/db/{$filename}",
            file_get_contents($localPath),
        );

        unlink($localPath);
        $this->info("Backup uploaded: backups/db/{$filename}");
    }
}

Schedule in Kernel

// app/Console/Kernel.php
protected function schedule(Schedule $schedule)
{
    $schedule->command('db:backup')->dailyAt('02:00');
}

Or with spatie/laravel-backup:

composer require spatie/laravel-backup
php artisan vendor:publish --provider="Spatie\Backup\BackupServiceProvider"

Configure the tigris disk in config/backup.php.

---

Restore

# List backups
tigris ls t3://my-app-backups/backups/db/

# Download and restore
tigris cp t3://my-app-backups/backups/db/backup-2026-03-18T02:00:00Z.sql.gz /tmp/restore.sql.gz
gunzip /tmp/restore.sql.gz
psql "$DATABASE_URL" < /tmp/restore.sql

---

Retention Policy

Use Tigris lifecycle rules to auto-delete old backups:

tigris buckets lifecycle set my-app-backups --config lifecycle.json

{
  "Rules": [
    {
      "ID": "delete-old-backups",
      "Filter": { "Prefix": "backups/db/" },
      "Status": "Enabled",
      "Expiration": { "Days": 30 }
    }
  ]
}

Recommended retention:

Type	Retention
Daily backups	30 days
Weekly backups	90 days
Monthly backups	1 year

---

Critical Rules

Always: Compress before uploading (gzip) | Use timestamps in filenames | Set up retention/lifecycle rules | Test restore periodically | Store backup bucket credentials separately from app credentials

Never: Store backups in the same bucket as application data | Skip compression for database dumps | Forget to clean up local temp files after upload

---

Related Skills

• tigris-lifecycle-management — Auto-delete old backups
• tigris-security-access-control — Separate backup credentials
• file-storage — CLI setup and access key management

Official Documentation

• Tigris CLI: https://www.tigrisdata.com/docs/