backups.enabled: false + cluster.plugins.enabled: true results in WAL backup failed :-(

[mzwettler2]

backups.enabled: false + cluster.plugins.enabled: true results in WAL backup failed (as there is no ObjectStore created anymore).

In my opinion, there should be only one switch to enable/disable backups + WAL archiving.
Everything else seems buggy to me. Even if the user is aware of this, it's just a hassle.

[dosubot]

@mzwettler2 you've identified a real inconsistency in the chart's template logic. Here's what's happening:

The ObjectStore resource is only created when the cluster.barmanPluginRequired helper returns true [1], and that helper requires both backups.enabled: true and backups.method: plugin [2]:

{{- define "cluster.barmanPluginRequired" -}}
  {{- if and .Values.backups.enabled (eq .Values.backups.method "plugin") -}}
    {{- if eq .Values.backups.pluginConfiguration.name "barman-cloud.cloudnative-pg.io" -}}
      {{- $required = true -}}
    {{- end -}}
  {{- end -}}
{{- end -}}

Meanwhile, cluster.yaml injects the barman plugin into spec.plugins whenever cluster.plugins contains name: barman-cloud.cloudnative-pg.io or barmanPluginRequired is true — it does not check backups.enabled for the user-supplied plugin entries [3]. So with backups.enabled: false + a plugin entry with isWALArchiver: true, the Cluster spec references an ObjectStore that was never created, and WAL archiving fails.

The root cause is two independent conditions with no cross-check:

• backup-objectstore.yaml gates on backups.enabled [1]
• cluster.yaml's plugins section gates on the presence of the plugin in cluster.plugins [4]

Your suggestion of a single unified switch is reasonable. There have been multiple community PRs attempting to reconcile these paths [5] [6], but none have fully landed yet.

Workaround: If you want plugin-based WAL archiving, set backups.enabled: true + backups.method: plugin instead of configuring cluster.plugins directly — that's the path that actually triggers ObjectStore creation [2]. Alternatively, if you need backups.enabled: false with the plugin, you'll need to create the ObjectStore resource manually outside the chart.

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[mzwettler2]

Thanks.

I've now checked the code as well and can confirm that it is working correctly if you only specify the keys backups.enabled: true and backups.method: plugin, but no cluster.plugins.* backup-releated keys.

At the very least, the current documentation in values.yaml should be updated. It's currently misleading.

# -- Plugins
# When adding `barman-cloud.cloudnative-pg.io`, just specify the plugin name and set `isWALArchiver` to true. The
# chart will then provision an `ObjectStore` resource with the configuration from the `backups.barmanObjectStore` section.