Date: Tue, 1 Mar 2005 13:14:26 -0600
From: "Jim C. Nasby" <decibel@decibel.org>
To: Tino Wildenhain <tino@wildenhain.de>,
	Jeff Davis <jdavis-pgsql@empires.org>, schen@graciousstyle.com,
	PgSQL General List <pgsql-general@postgresql.org>,
	pgsql-docs@postgresql.org
Subject: Re: Fast major-version upgrade (was: [GENERAL] postgresql 8.0
	advantages)
Message-ID: <20050301191426.GD891@decibel.org>
References: <421F3926.6090201@graciousstyle.com>
	<5708.1109348115@sss.pgh.pa.us>
	<421F5E5D.1010902@graciousstyle.com>
	<1109410075.4089.216.camel@jeff>
	<20050226213527.GA84483@decibel.org>
	<1109536061.9880.87.camel@Andrea.peacock.de>
	<20050228193658.GC533@decibel.org>
	<20050228202745.GC27668@svana.org>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Disposition: inline
In-Reply-To: <20050228202745.GC27668@svana.org>
User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.6i

On Mon, Feb 28, 2005 at 09:27:46PM +0100, Martijn van Oosterhout wrote:
> On Mon, Feb 28, 2005 at 01:36:59PM -0600, Jim C. Nasby wrote:
> > > I used a straight copy of the filesystem with running database
> > > (over the net in my case) and immediately after that,
> > > stop the db and rsync for the last changes. This took only
> > > 10 minutes (compared to 1.5h for the full filesystem copy)
> > > and I could start up the db in new location.
> > > 
> > > this could work for you too.
> > 
> > I hadn't thought about using rsync; that's a great idea!
> > 
> > Is there somewhere this could be documented? In an FAQ maybe?
> 
> It works only in the special case where the PostgreSQL version number
> is the same and you're running on the same platform. How often are you
> transferring databases like that. Even transferring from i386 to amd64
> wouldn't work like this AFAIUI.

Absolutely true, although in the case of database version PostgreSQL
will check that itself. But in the context this was originally brought
up in (using Sloney to upgrade a machine from 7.4.x to 8.x), it would
work great, and rsync would make a huge difference in downtime.
-- 
Jim C. Nasby, Database Consultant               decibel@decibel.org 
Give your computer some brain candy! www.distributed.net Team #1828

Windows: "Where do you want to go today?"
Linux: "Where do you want to go tomorrow?"
FreeBSD: "Are you guys coming, or what?"