Now friends, I will talk about a data loss that occurred in the production environment and how we managed to recover that data afterwards. Sometimes everything runs smoothly, and right at such a moment, this event happened to us. Everything was proceeding normally when we suddenly noticed that… some things had disappeared.
What is the first reaction when such a thing happens? Panic! Especially in Production environment, especially if the data is important… But you need to stay calm, instead of panicking immediately, you need to try to understand the situation. First, we did some investigation to understand why this was happening.
Honestly, finding the source of the issue took some time. Sometimes the simplest things can lead to the biggest problems, right? For example, disk space full, authorization issues, or even worse, a wrong command… In our case, we dug into logs and examined systems thoroughly to understand exactly what happened. Sometimes, you can get lost in those logs, but you have to look anyway.
Eventually, we could shed some light on the cause of the incident. Once we knew what exactly happened, we moved to the recovery steps. At this point, having a recovery plan ready is the most critical thing. You need to know ‘What do I do if this happens one day?’ and keep that answer in your pocket. Fortunately, we had a backup, but we still needed to plan how to extract data from that backup.
Of course, there are preventive measures you can take to avoid data loss in Production. Regular backups are a must. But beyond that, tightly controlling access, establishing dual control mechanisms for critical operations, and similar measures can also save lives. Hani, we work so hard to prevent losing things, right?
Moving to the recovery process… First, we checked the integrity of the backups. If a backup is corrupted or incomplete, it can make things worse. Luckily, our backups were intact, which was a big stroke of luck. Then, we determined how to extract only the lost data from the backup. Restoring the entire database can be more risky and slower, so focusing only on the necessary parts is preferable.
Here, some technical knowledge is involved. Which commands will we use, which tools will we deploy? If you’re using PostgreSQL, tools like ‘pg_restore’ can be lifesavers. Our goal was to restore the data as quickly and with minimal intervention as possible.
Actually, I had prepared a simple script for such scenarios, but you must always test it in a staging environment before running it in Production. Even your own code can sometimes surprise you 🙂
Here is one of the methods we used to extract the lost data:
-- WRONG METHOD (RESTORING THE ENTIRE DATABASE - RISKY!) -- This method restores the whole database and overwrites existing data. -- Not recommended in Production!-- pg_restore -h hl=us --port 5432 -U postgres -d your_database_name --clean --create backup.dump
-- RIGHT METHOD (Restoring Only Required Tables - Safer!) -- This method targets specific tables or schemas to perform recovery. -- First, identify the tables you want to recover. -- Then, use this command to restore only those tables.
-- Example: Restoring only 'users' table -- You can create a temporary database and restore there. -- Then transfer the 'users' table to your main database.
-- 1. Creating temporary database (optional but recommended) -- CREATE DATABASE temp_recovery;
-- 2. Restoring only 'users' from backup to the temporary database -- pg_restore -h hl=us --port 5432 -U postgres -d temp_recovery -t users backup.dump
-- 3. Back up the 'users' table from your main database (for security!) -- pg_dump -h hl=us --port 5432 -U postgres -t users your_database_name > users_backup_before_restore.sql
-- 4. Migrate the 'users' table from the temporary database to your main database -- INSERT INTO your_database_name.users SELECT * FROM temp_recovery.users;
-- 5. Drop the temporary database -- DROP DATABASE temp_recovery;
-- Note: These examples are specific to PostgreSQL. Commands vary for different databases. -- For details: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/app-pgrestore.html
Step by step, we progressed. Sometimes, even the most complicated problems are based on simple principles; you just need to follow the right steps. Also, remember that regular backups and disaster recovery plans are crucial to prevent such data losses. Hani, just in case.
Ultimately, this incident in Production taught us both lessons and reaffirmed the value of our backup and recovery mechanisms. Believe me, staying calm and following the correct steps in such cases is most important. And, of course, always have a B plan ready.
If anyone has experienced similar situations or knows alternative recovery methods, feel free to share in the comments. Knowledge grows as it is shared. Maybe the method I used isn’t the best for everyone, and others may have better solutions.
Remember, as technology advances, risks evolve, but so do the precautions. The key is to keep up with this flow. Hadi bakalım, happy coding without mishaps for everyone 🙂