Received: from maia.hub.org (maia-3.hub.org [200.46.204.243]) by mail.postgresql.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3195F1336971 for ; Mon, 3 Jan 2011 14:56:59 -0400 (AST) Received: from mail.postgresql.org ([200.46.204.86]) by maia.hub.org (mx1.hub.org [200.46.204.243]) (amavisd-maia, port 10024) with ESMTP id 94763-03 for ; Mon, 3 Jan 2011 18:56:51 +0000 (UTC) X-Greylist: from auto-whitelisted by SQLgrey-1.7.6 Received: from sss.pgh.pa.us (sss.pgh.pa.us [66.207.139.130]) by mail.postgresql.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 91E4F13364DE for ; Mon, 3 Jan 2011 14:56:51 -0400 (AST) Received: from sss2.sss.pgh.pa.us (tgl@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by sss.pgh.pa.us (8.14.2/8.14.2) with ESMTP id p03IumMU022731; Mon, 3 Jan 2011 13:56:48 -0500 (EST) To: Scott Ribe cc: Imre Oolberg , pgsql-admin@postgresql.org Subject: Re: Re: pg v. 8.4.5 misses objects and data after restoring from backup using wal In-reply-to: References: <4D2213EB.7090700@auul.pri.ee> <42066935-6D27-46E3-8094-836D204816B7@elevated-dev.com> <22500.1294080152@sss.pgh.pa.us> Comments: In-reply-to Scott Ribe message dated "Mon, 03 Jan 2011 11:49:37 -0700" Date: Mon, 03 Jan 2011 13:56:48 -0500 Message-ID: <22730.1294081008@sss.pgh.pa.us> From: Tom Lane X-Virus-Scanned: Maia Mailguard 1.0.1 X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-1.91 tagged_above=-10 required=5 tests=BAYES_00=-1.9, T_RP_MATCHES_RCVD=-0.01 X-Spam-Level: X-Archive-Number: 201101/18 X-Sequence-Number: 36458 Scott Ribe writes: > Unless I misread his earlier post, he is starting the backup, copying files, stopping the backup, and expecting those transactions (between start & stop) to be applied, even though files changed during that time (including WAL files) have not all been copied. Again, unless I misread his earlier post, he is *not* copying WAL that was generated between start & stop. If that's the case, it just plain won't work. You can either shut down the postmaster and copy a static set of files, or you can apply WAL to a base backup that was taken from a live database. There is no way to get consistent results from a backup of a live database without applying all the WAL that was generated while the backup was being taken. regards, tom lane