Last updated October 01, 2024

Heroku Postgres rollback “rolls back” the state of your database to a previous point.

Rollback doesn’t affect your primary database. It follows the same pattern as fork: rollback provisions a new database that isn’t directly connected to the primary in any way. Like a fork, a rollback takes some time to become available. When the rollback is available, it can be promoted to primary. When the rollback is primary, you can remove the previous add-on.

The rollback period varies by database plan.

Creating a Rollback Database

Before you roll back, ensure the desired rollback point is available for your database. Different database plans have different rollback availability. To check rollback availability for your current database, use the heroku pg:info command:

$ heroku pg:info --app example-app
=== HEROKU_POSTGRESQL_YELLOW_URL (DATABASE_URL)
Plan:        Standard 0
Status:      Available
Data Size:   584.6 MB
Tables:      29
PG Version:  9.2.4
Connections: 8
Fork/Follow: Available
Rollback:    from 2013-10-18 20:00 UTC
Created:     2013-04-18 20:14 UTC
Maintenance: not required

Creating a rollback database uses the same mechanism as creating a follower: provisioning occurs on creation of a new database add-on with the --rollback flag. The --rollback flag can take the config var name of the database on the same app, an argument of the form appname::HEROKU_POSTGRESQL_COLOR, or the full URL of any Heroku Postgres database.

In addition, you must specify the time to roll back to. There are two ways to indicate the desired time:

• Explicit Timestamp - You can specify an explicit timestamp. Use the format 2013-10-22 12:34+00:00. You must include the time zone offset. You can also use a symbolic time zone: 2013-10-22 12:34 US/Pacific.

• Interval - You can specify an interval. Use the format 3 days 7 hours 22 minutes. A recovery time must be passed with the --to flag, and a recovery interval with --by. At least one must be present, but not both. Rollback isn’t accurate down to the second. Seconds specified in the recovery time or interval are ignored.

The following example shows a full rollback:

$ heroku addons:create heroku-postgresql:standard-0 --rollback HEROKU_POSTGRESQL_YELLOW --to '2013-10-21 15:52+00' --app example-app

$ heroku addons:create heroku-postgresql:standard-0 --app example-app -- --rollback HEROKU_POSTGRESQL_YELLOW --to '2013-10-21 15:52+00'

The command echoes the target recovery time (and elapsed time) to the command line.

Preparing a rollback can take anywhere from several minutes to several hours, depending on the size of your dataset. The heroku pg:wait command shows the provisioning status of any new databases and can be used to determine when the rollback is up to date:

$ heroku pg:wait --app example-app
Waiting for database HEROKU_POSTGRESQL_SILVER_URL... available

Deprovisioning

When you’re done with the rollback, deprovision it using heroku addons:destroy:

$ heroku addons:destroy HEROKU_POSTGRESQL_YELLOW --app example-app
    !    WARNING: Destructive Action
    !    This command will affect the app: example-app
    !    To proceed, type "example-app" or re-run this command with --confirm example-app

Rollback Status

You can check the status of rollback for your database by running heroku pg:info. There are three potential statuses for the Rollback field.

• Rollback: from YYYY-MM-DD HH:SS UTC: Your database supports rollback and has an available backup. It shows the timestamp of the earliest rollback point.
• Rollback: Capturing Snapshot: Your database supports rollback and the first backup is in progress.
• Unsupported: Your database doesn’t support rollback.

Common Use Case: Recovery After a Critical Data Loss

Rollback is a great safety net for critical data loss issues like accidentally dropping an important table. To recover the lost data through rollback:

1. Create a rollback:

   The addons:create example follows the syntax for Heroku CLI v9.0.0 or later. If you’re on v8.11.5 or earlier, use the command:

   $ heroku addons:create heroku-postgresql:standard-0 --rollback HEROKU_POSTGRESQL_YELLOW --to '2013-10-21 15:52+00' --app example-app
   

   $ heroku addons:create heroku-postgresql:standard-0 --app example-app -- --rollback HEROKU_POSTGRESQL_YELLOW --to '2013-10-21 15:52+00'
   Creating heroku-postgresql:standard-0 on ⬢ example-app... $50/month
   Database will become available after it completes rolling back
   to 2013-10-21 15:52+0000.
   Use `heroku pg:wait` to track status.
   postgresql-adjacent-88888 is being created in the background. The app will restart when complete...
   Use heroku addons:info postgresql-adjacent-88888 to check creation progress
   Use heroku addons:docs heroku-postgresql to view documentation
   

2. Confirm that the rollback database is provisioned:

   $ heroku pg:wait --app example-app
   Waiting for database HEROKU_POSTGRESQL_SILVER... available
   

3. Promote the rollback as the primary database:

   $ heroku pg:promote HEROKU_POSTGRESQL_SILVER --app example-app
   

4. Recreate all followers on the new leader (if applicable):

   The addons:create example follows the syntax for Heroku CLI v9.0.0 or later. If you’re on v8.11.5 or earlier, use the command:

   $ heroku addons:create heroku-postgresql:standard-0 --follow HEROKU_POSTGRESQL_SILVER --app example-app
   

   $ heroku addons:create heroku-postgresql:standard-0 --app example-app -- --follow HEROKU_POSTGRESQL_SILVER
   Creating heroku-postgresql:standard-0 on ⬢ example-app... $50/month
   The database should be available in 3-5 minutes.
   Use `heroku pg:wait` to track status.
   postgresql-rigid-99330 is being created in the background. The app will restart when complete...
   Use heroku addons:info postgresql-rigid-99330 to check creation progress
   Use heroku addons:docs heroku-postgresql to view documentation