On Fri, Jan 31, 2014 at 9:55 AM, CS DBA <cs_dba@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: [...] > Next I'll try this (I assume the first checkpoint is simply un-needed): > echo "select pg_start_backup('$tag'); checkpoint;" | psql > However, this works well and the pg_start_backup finishes in less than > 1minute, I wonder how it helped at all, because it should not. Probably it was some kind of a coincidence. [...] > Thoughts? The note below is from the docs for pg_start_backup(). "pg_start_backup(label text [, fast boolean ]) ... There is an optional second parameter of type boolean. If true, it specifies executing pg_start_backup as quickly as possible. This forces an immediate checkpoint which will cause a spike in I/O operations, slowing any concurrently executing queries." So all you need is to specify 'true' as a second parameter. select pg_start_backup('$tag', true) -- Kind regards, Sergey Konoplev PostgreSQL Consultant and DBA http://www.linkedin.com/in/grayhemp +1 (415) 867-9984, +7 (901) 903-0499, +7 (988) 888-1979 gray.ru@xxxxxxxxx -- Sent via pgsql-admin mailing list (pgsql-admin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-admin