[Bug]: CNPG Kubectl Plugin fails to report Continuous Backup status

Is there an existing issue already for this bug?

I have searched for an existing issue, and could not find anything. I believe this is a new bug.

I have read the troubleshooting guide

I have read the troubleshooting guide and I think this is a new bug.

I am running a supported version of CloudNativePG

I have read the troubleshooting guide and I think this is a new bug.

Contact Details

[email protected]

Version

1.26 (latest patch)

What version of Kubernetes are you using?

1.33

What is your Kubernetes environment?

Other

How did you install the operator?

YAML manifest

What happened?

Upgraded to cnpg 1.26.0 and follwed the migration instructions to switch to the plugin.

Verified that backups work and that WALs are being archived, upgraded the cnpg kubectl plugin and checked database status - and it's showing:

Continuous Backup status
Not configured

even though WALs are being archived.

I verified that I'm running the 1.26.0 kubectl pluging too:

% k cnpg version 
Build: {Version:1.26.0 Commit:1535f3c17 Date:2025-05-23}

Cluster resource

apiVersion: postgresql.cnpg.io/v1
kind: Cluster
metadata:
  name: testdb
  namespace: test
spec:
  imageName: ghcr.io/cloudnative-pg/postgresql:16.6
  instances: 2
  enableSuperuserAccess: true
  primaryUpdateStrategy: unsupervised
  primaryUpdateMethod: switchover
  smartShutdownTimeout: 20
  stopDelay: 30
  switchoverDelay: 60
  storage:
    size: 10Gi
  plugins:
  - name: barman-cloud.cloudnative-pg.io
    isWALArchiver: true
    parameters:
      barmanObjectName: minio-local

Relevant log output

Code of Conduct

I agree to follow this project's Code of Conduct

@danielluke

Hi @danielluke! I'm Dosu and I’m helping the cloudnative-pg team.

Based on your description and the information available, there are currently no known issues or discussions in the CloudNativePG repository specifically about the CNPG Kubectl Plugin failing to report Continuous Backup status, even when WAL archiving is working.

A few points to consider:

The official documentation for the CNPG Kubectl Plugin does show example output where "Continuous Backup status" is reported as "Not configured," which matches what you are seeing. This suggests that the plugin may only report this status as "configured" when certain conditions are met in the cluster configuration or status fields, not just when WAL archiving is active. You can review this in the plugin documentation.
The troubleshooting guide recommends checking your cluster's status fields, specifically lastSuccessfulBackup and firstRecoverabilityPoint, to verify that backups are recognized as configured and working. If these fields are missing or not updated, the plugin may not detect continuous backup as configured, even if WALs are being archived. See the troubleshooting guide for more details.
The plugin supports a --verbose option, which can provide more detailed status information and may help clarify what the plugin is (or isn't) detecting about your backup configuration. Try running:
```
kubectl cnpg status <cluster-name> --verbose
```
and review the output for any clues about backup detection.

Your cluster spec shows the use of the barman-cloud.cloudnative-pg.io plugin with isWALArchiver: true, but does not include a .spec.backup stanza. According to the documentation, the absence of a .spec.backup section means that scheduled backups are not configured, which may be why the plugin reports "Continuous Backup status: Not configured" even though WAL archiving is working. The plugin may require both WAL archiving and scheduled backups to consider continuous backup as "configured" in its status output.

If you want the plugin to recognize continuous backup as configured, try adding a .spec.backup section to your cluster manifest and see if the status changes after applying the update and waiting for the operator to reconcile.

If you have already done this or if the issue persists, it may be a new bug or a limitation in how the plugin detects backup configuration. In that case, gathering the verbose output and your cluster status fields will be helpful for further investigation.

To reply, just mention @dosu.

Share context across your team and agents. Try Dosu.

From 'kubectl describe cluster`:

  Conditions:
    Last Transition Time:  2025-05-28T06:05:57Z
    Message:               Cluster is Ready
    Reason:                ClusterIsReady
    Status:                True
    Type:                  Ready
    Last Transition Time:  2025-05-28T06:04:51Z
    Message:               Continuous archiving is working
    Reason:                ContinuousArchivingSuccess
    Status:                True
    Type:                  ContinuousArchiving
    Last Transition Time:  2025-05-28T00:00:58Z
    Message:               Backup was successful
    Reason:                LastBackupSucceeded
    Status:                True
    Type:                  LastBackupSucceeded

and

  Last Failed Backup:      2025-03-25T14:53:02Z
  Last Successful Backup:  2025-05-27T00:02:43Z
  Last Successful Backup By Method:
    Barman Object Store:  2025-05-27T00:02:43Z

nightly backups and WAL archiving look fine.

It's clear from code inspection that this just hasn't yet been updated for the plugin backup method:

cloudnative-pg/internal/cmd/plugin/status/status.go

Line 517 in a9d81ac

if cluster.Spec.Backup == nil {

As a hotfix you can circumvent the nilcheck by adding empty backup definition into your manifest:

spec:
  backup: {}

As a hotfix you can circumvent the nilcheck by adding empty backup definition into your manifest:

spec:
backup: {}

This works for me as well. But doesn't fix the Physical Backups or First Point of Recoverability output.

The matching prometheus metric cnpg_collector_last_available_backup_timestamp is also no longer updated after switching to the barman plugin.

Seeing the same thing about the metric cnpg_collector_last_available_backup_timestamp and cnpg_collector_first_recoverability_point

I've been experimenting with adding some kind of servicemonitor or podmonitor for the barman pod/service in the cnpg-system namespace but no luck so far.

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[Bug]: CNPG Kubectl Plugin fails to report Continuous Backup status #7658

Is there an existing issue already for this bug?

I have read the troubleshooting guide

I am running a supported version of CloudNativePG

Contact Details

Version

What version of Kubernetes are you using?

What is your Kubernetes environment?

How did you install the operator?

What happened?

Cluster resource

Relevant log output

Code of Conduct

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[Bug]: CNPG Kubectl Plugin fails to report Continuous Backup status #7658

Description

Is there an existing issue already for this bug?

I have read the troubleshooting guide

I am running a supported version of CloudNativePG

Contact Details

Version

What version of Kubernetes are you using?

What is your Kubernetes environment?

How did you install the operator?

What happened?

Cluster resource

Relevant log output

Code of Conduct

Activity

dosubot commented on May 27, 2025

danielluke commented on May 28, 2025

rofafor commented on Jun 2, 2025

ljhanson commented on Jun 3, 2025

haraldkoch commented on Jun 7, 2025

sbv-csis commented on Jun 12, 2025

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