Guides / Render
Back up Render PostgreSQL to Backblaze B2
Set up automatic, scheduled PostgreSQL backups from Render into your own Backblaze B2 bucket — with retention, optional encryption and failure alerts — without writing a script or maintaining a cron server.
Why back up off-platform?
Render only keeps point-in-time recovery on paid database instances, and it is tied to your Render account. Free databases have no backups at all.
B2 is roughly a quarter of the price of S3 and speaks the S3 API. Ideal if you want lots of history.
Step 1 — Find your Render database credentials
In the Render dashboard open your Postgres instance → Connect → External Connection. Copy the hostname (ends in .render.com), port 5432, database, username and password. Render requires SSL.
Then allow the Dumpling worker's static IP address 2.28.121.200 to connect. Keep SSL enabled — Render requires it. For extra safety, create a read-only user; the exact GRANT statements are in the docs.
Step 2 — Create a Backblaze B2 bucket and access key
- Buckets → Create a Bucket (private).
- Application Keys → Add a New Application Key restricted to that bucket with read/write access.
- Note the
keyID(Access Key ID),applicationKey(Secret) and the S3 endpoint shown on the bucket, e.g.https://s3.us-west-004.backblazeb2.com.
In Dumpling, the endpoint is https://s3.us-west-004.backblazeb2.com and the region is us-west-004. B2 storage is $6/TB-month and the first 3× your stored volume in egress each month is free.
Step 3 — Create the backup job
- Sign in (free, no card) and add the database from step 1. Dumpling tests the connection and reports the version and size immediately.
- Add the Backblaze B2 bucket from step 2. Dumpling writes and deletes a tiny test object to confirm the key works.
- Create a job: pick a schedule (daily at 02:00 UTC is a good default), how many backups to keep, and optionally a passphrase to encrypt files client-side-decryptably.
The first backup starts right away. From then on, Dumpling runs pg_dump on schedule and streams the output straight into B2. Every run shows the object key, size, duration and log.
Restoring
Download the object from Backblaze B2 and run:
createdb restored_db pg_restore --no-owner --no-acl -d restored_db 2026-09-10T02-00-01Z.dump
Encrypted files (.enc) decrypt with openssl enc -d -aes-256-cbc -pbkdf2; see the restore docs.
Prefer to do it yourself?
It is a few lines of shell — the hard part is the machine to run it, retention, and knowing when it silently stops working:
# DIY alternative: a cron job on a server you maintain 0 2 * * * PGPASSWORD=... pg_dump -Fc -h HOST -U USER DB \ | aws s3 cp - s3://BUCKET/backups/$(date -u +%FT%TZ).dump --endpoint-url https://s3.us-west-004.backblazeb2.com # ...plus retention, alerting, and a machine to run it on.
Dumpling exists so you do not have to babysit that cron job. The free plan covers one database with daily backups forever.