Simon Riggs wrote:
On Fri, 2008-01-25 at 11:34 +1100, Phillip Smith wrote: If you don't mind if you lose some transactions you can also use file system snapshotting....which would work just as well as pg_dump, and probably have less impact on the running database (assuming you had decent enough hardware). So long as the product you are using can snapshot the file system prior to performing a backup, you can use just about any product (without having to really do much/any work). When you restore a snapshotted file system that contains your postgresql database, postgresql (on restart) will enter auto-recovery mode and recover (as it does in the case of the crash) to the last transaction that was completed successfully prior to the snapshot being created. Note that this would only work if all your tablespaces were on the same file system, and would be unable to "roll forward" using WAL files generated after the backup. However, you should keep in mind that - like a pg_dump - you won't be able to perform PITR recovery from such a backup. Also, the recovery time may be non-trivial depending on your WAL settings. -- Chander Ganesan Open Technology Group, Inc. One Copley Parkway, Suite 210 Morrisville, NC 27560 Phone: 877-258-8987/919-463-0999 http://www.otg-nc.com As me about Expert PostgreSQL & PostGIS Training delivered worldwide. |
