PlanetScale adds an emergency backup option for Vitess databases
Emergency backups copy data straight from a live primary or replica instead of starting from the last snapshot, for when scheduled backups have stopped working.
PlanetScale added emergency backups for Vitess databases on 3 November. Instead of restoring from or building on the last successful snapshot, an emergency backup copies data directly from the running database, so you can get a fresh copy even when your regular backups are failing.
On production branches you choose the source: the primary, or a replica if you want to avoid adding load to the instance serving live traffic. Once created, an emergency backup is retained, billed and restored the same way as any manual backup. You can trigger one from the Backups page in the dashboard, through the API, or from the CLI:
pscale backup create --emergency --emergency-source primary|replicaWhy it matters: if a scheduled backup job breaks, say after a schema change, you are normally stuck debugging the pipeline before you have anything recent to restore from. This gives you a working backup immediately, which matters most exactly when things have already gone wrong.