Work · DevOps · 2024
A MySQL backup orchestrator with point-in-time recovery
A backup management system for Docker-based and host-based MySQL installations. Full + incremental snapshots, point-in-time recovery, automated retention, compression, and verified restores.
The job
1 on the team,
6 weeks.
- Client
- Direct
- Sector
- DevOps
- Year
- 2024
- Role
- Tech Lead
Brief and outcome
What was needed.
Multiple databases, multiple environments, mixed Docker + bare-metal — and the backup story was a tangle of cron jobs and assumptions. We needed point-in-time recovery, tested restores, and an honest answer to "what's our RPO and RTO" for every database we run.
What came of it.
Documented RPO of 5 minutes and RTO of 30 minutes for every database in the system. First time the team had a backup playbook they actually trusted enough to run from cold.
What was built
6 parts,
shipped.
A selection of projects shipped through Syntorium and our CTO's prior engagements.
Full + incremental snapshots
Built on Percona XtraBackup with binlog application for point-in-time recovery to any second within the retention window.
Docker + host-based MySQL support
A single config schema — the same orchestrator runs against containers and hardware.
Automated retention
Daily, weekly, monthly policies, enforced by the orchestrator, never by humans editing crontabs.
zstd compression
Verified integrity hashes; bandwidth costs dropped by ~60% vs. gzip without measurably impacting backup duration.
Restore verification
Every backup is restored into a sandbox automatically and validated against checksum + sample queries. Untested backups don't count.
Operator playbook
For the top-five recovery scenarios, kept inside the same repo as the tooling.
More work
Start
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