DOC-12561 Continuous backup PITR by ggray-cb · Pull Request #4138 · couchbase/docs-server

ggray-cb · 2026-07-02T13:14:25Z

Adds documentation for Continuous backup and point-in-time recovery,

The links in the following changes led to the preview site. You will need the Docs Team credentials on Confluence.

New pages added:

Continuous Backup — Concepts page for Continuous Backup.
Manage Continuous Backup — How to configure and manage continuous backup
Manage Point-in-Time Recovery — How to use PITR to restore data to a specific point in time
Monitor Continuous Backup — How to monitor continuous backup status

Existing pages updated:

Backup Service — Notes added referencing the new continuous backup capability
Install Ports and Server Processes — Port/process entry added for cbcontbk
What's New — Continuous Backup and PITR announced as new features

Please review by July 12th.

…e service page.

* Added minitor continuous backup. * Updated metrics. * Finished draft of manage continuous backup.

…he install section.

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Pull request overview

Adds Couchbase Server 8.1 documentation and reference updates for the new Continuous Backup + Point-in-Time Recovery (PITR) capabilities, including new Learn/Manage pages, navigation entries, and supporting operational reference updates (ports/processes/metrics metadata).

Changes:

Introduces new Learn + Manage documentation for continuous backup and PITR, plus example command/log snippets.
Updates site navigation and related “new features”/cross-reference pages to surface continuous backup.
Extends metrics metadata and operational reference docs (install ports + server processes) to reflect new/updated functionality.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 19 out of 20 changed files in this pull request and generated 23 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
preview/DOC-12561_Continuous_backup_PITR.yml	Adds a preview build config enabling the `backup` content source for the DOC-12561 preview.
modules/ROOT/nav.adoc	Adds nav entries for the new continuous backup/PITR learn + manage pages.
modules/metrics-reference/attachments/n1ql_metrics_metadata.json	Adds/adjusts SQL++ (N1QL) metrics metadata entries.
modules/metrics-reference/attachments/kv_metrics_metadata.json	Adds/adjusts KV metrics metadata (including continuous backup/magma/fusion-related metrics).
modules/metrics-reference/attachments/index_metrics_metadata.json	Adds new index metrics metadata for vector-related index counts.
modules/metrics-reference/attachments/goxdcr_metrics_metadata.json	Updates XDCR metrics help/notes and adjusts a metric type/version entry.
modules/metrics-reference/attachments/fts_metrics_metadata.json	Adds new FTS metrics metadata for vector indexes in CPU/GPU memory.
modules/metrics-reference/attachments/cm_metrics_metadata.json	Adds a new CM telemetry metric metadata entry.
modules/manage/pages/manage-backup-and-restore/monitor-continuous-backup.adoc	New “monitor continuous backup” operational doc page.
modules/manage/pages/manage-backup-and-restore/manage-pitr.adoc	New PITR management doc page.
modules/manage/pages/manage-backup-and-restore/manage-continuous-backup.adoc	New “configure/manage continuous backup” doc page.
modules/manage/examples/continuous-backup.sh	Adds example `cbcontbk` CLI snippets referenced by the Manage docs.
modules/manage/examples/continuous-backup.log	Adds example output referenced by the Manage docs.
modules/learn/pages/services-and-indexes/services/continuous-backup.adoc	New Learn overview page describing continuous backup + PITR concepts.
modules/learn/pages/services-and-indexes/services/backup-service.adoc	Adds a section linking Backup Service to continuous backup/PITR.
modules/learn/pages/data/change-history.adoc	Adds guidance tying change history requirements to continuous backup usage.
modules/learn/pages/clusters-and-availability/hard-failover.adoc	Adds a caution about unsafe failover behavior when continuous backup is enabled.
modules/introduction/partials/new-features-81.adoc	Adds 8.1 release notes bullets for continuous backup + PITR.
modules/install/pages/server-processes.adoc	Documents the `cbcontbk` process and normalizes path formatting in the process table.
modules/install/pages/install-ports.adoc	Adds port 9125 and documents the `cbcontbk` port usage.

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incomplete sentences.

matthallcb · 2026-07-03T08:03:56Z

+
+The following example enables continuous backup for `travel-sample` bucket. 
+It sets the backup interval to 10 minutes.
+The backup location is an NFS share mounted on each not at the path `/shared.continuous-backup`.


I'm not sure what this sentence is saying

matthallcb · 2026-07-03T08:04:17Z

+* `--continuous-backup-location`: The location where the backup service will store the continuous backup data.
+This value must a string containing either an absolute path to an NFS mount point mounted on every node or a cloud storage URI.
+* `--continuous-backup-cloud-storage-cred-id`: If you set `--continuous-backup-location` to a cloud storage URI, set this to the name of a credential in the Couchbase Server credential store.
+The Backup Service uses this credential to authenticate with the cloud provider.


Let's avoid saying backup service

matthallcb · 2026-07-03T08:06:53Z

+* To prevent consistency issues, stop continuous backup on the bucket you're restoring.
+You must stop continuous backup even if you're not restoring to the original bucket.
+Once the PITR finishes, you can restart continuous backup.
+See xref:manage:manage-backup-and-restore/manage-continuous-backup.adoc#stop-continuous-backup[Stop Continuous Backup] to learn how to stop continuous backup for a bucket.
+


Note for myself: I'm not sure if this is necessary, I need to check

matthallcb · 2026-07-22T09:55:17Z

+* Verify that all of the system clocks in your cluster are synchronized.
+See xref:install:synchronize-clocks-using-ntp.adoc[] for more information.
+
+* You must configure scheduled periodic backups using either the Backup Service or `cbbackupmgr`. 


Can we mention that it takes a backup interval before continuous backup uploads any data. Because your cbbackupmgr backups and continuous backups must overlap, that means you need to wait a backup interval, then do a cbbackupmgr backup before continuous is ready to use

ggray-cb added 7 commits June 24, 2026 13:26

Initial in-progress commit.

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Initial draft pf continuoud backup concepts page. Added note on chang…

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…e service page.

Draft of the manage continuous backup page.

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* In progress on managing PITR.

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* Added minitor continuous backup. * Updated metrics. * Finished draft of manage continuous backup.

Wrapped up draft of PITR page.

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Added the port # for cbcontbk to the list of ports and processes in t…

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…he install section.

Added link to introduction.

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ggray-cb requested a review from Copilot July 2, 2026 13:14

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ggray-cb and others added 20 commits July 2, 2026 09:40

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incomplete sentences.

ggray-cb requested review from TimLFletcher, matthallcb, owend74 and shivaniguptasf July 2, 2026 15:16

matthallcb reviewed Jul 3, 2026

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Updates based on Matt's feedback.

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matthallcb reviewed Jul 22, 2026

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Pull request overview

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ggray-cb commented Jul 2, 2026 •

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