Backup and restore troubleshooting FAQ

This page describes how to address most frequent inquiries about backup and restore issues.

Issue Solution
Are backups available after a deletion of an AlloyDB cluster?

Yes, in AlloyDB, both on-demand and automated backups have a degree of independence from the original cluster. This means you can restore data from these backups even after the cluster that created them is deleted.

Deleting a cluster does not prevent you from using the backup data to restore your data to a new AlloyDB cluster.

AlloyDB backup retention periods vary by backup type:

  • Continuous: Retention is configurable from 1 to 35 days.
  • Automated and on-demand: Retention can be up to one year.
Is it possible to restore an AlloyDB cluster to a specific point in time?

Point-in-time recovery (PITR) in AlloyDB lets you restore a cluster to its state at any moment within a defined period. However, PITR has these requirements:

  • Cluster existence: the cluster you want to restore must exist. You cannot use PITR to recover a deleted cluster.

  • Continuous backup enabled: PITR relies on the continuous backup and recovery feature in AlloyDB. You can only restore to a point in time after the oldest continuous backup was taken. This means that if continuous backup was recently enabled, you might not be able to restore to a time before that point.

    To restore your AlloyDB cluster to a specific point in time, see Perform point-in-time recovery.
Are restores performed within the same region as the backup?

Backups can only be restored within the same region as the backup. However, if you need to restore the cluster into a different region, you must first perform an on-demand backup of the original cluster, ensuring this backup is created in the target region. Then, you use that specific on-demand backup to complete the restore process in the new region. For more information, see Restore a cross-regional backup.
Are continuous backup and automated backups stored in the region of the cluster?

AlloyDB backup storage locations are determined as follows:

  • Continuous backups are stored in the region of the cluster.
  • Automated backups are stored in the region of the cluster by default.
  • On-demand backups are stored in the region of the cluster by default but can be stored in a different region.