How to Handle Backup for a Dockerized PostgreSQL DB?

First off, don’t let the responsibility slip onto your shoulders just because it seems like it’s your project! It’s clear that the IT strategy needs serious improvement. Engage your infrastructure team—you could learn a lot by working with them, and it could build some good cross-departmental relations. But honestly, their current setup sounds pretty amateur, and you might find yourself facing the fallout if things go south. Just keep raising the flags about the importance of backups!

Have you thought about scheduling regular pg_dump jobs from another server? This could provide a straightforward solution, but it sounds like communication is key here since you're not part of the infra team. I get that it's frustrating, but having a daily dump would at least give some level of safety. If you're worried about it being flaky, maybe point out those risks to your managers? Getting the infra team to handle this might be necessary.

It sounds like a tricky situation! Ideally, your IT team should re-evaluate their hosting strategy because running a production database without backups is risky. You might suggest they explore a managed database solution like AWS RDS, which can automate snapshots. If that's not an option, consider suggesting a read replica strategy or frequent data dumps with a clear communication of acceptable data loss. And definitely make sure you have monitoring in place to catch any failures! But remember, don’t take on this responsibility yourself—make sure the right people are on it and highlight the risks involved.