Received: from localhost (unknown [200.46.204.183]) by postgresql.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 081AE2E0054 for ; Mon, 24 Mar 2008 18:21:20 -0300 (ADT) Received: from postgresql.org ([200.46.204.71]) by localhost (mx1.hub.org [200.46.204.183]) (amavisd-maia, port 10024) with ESMTP id 50732-06 for ; Mon, 24 Mar 2008 18:21:15 -0300 (ADT) X-Greylist: domain auto-whitelisted by SQLgrey-1.7.5 Received: from rn-out-0910.google.com (rn-out-0910.google.com [64.233.170.191]) by postgresql.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 76CDD2E0037 for ; Mon, 24 Mar 2008 18:21:15 -0300 (ADT) Received: by rn-out-0910.google.com with SMTP id e11so1372657rng.17 for ; Mon, 24 Mar 2008 14:21:14 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=beta; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:message-id:date:from:user-agent:mime-version:to:cc:subject:references:in-reply-to:content-type:content-transfer-encoding; bh=jihdPCXZNj/FqoL9CYF3ie7u5P6mMuSoeUKclFLa6uU=; b=Rb+f/AwvEbr4k7faLkZ5AUUa7u+l/FwX0l/aniN0ylDgag7hZoIy9o+nYhXgR7y0iNkQVkq4vHheRKKDnEMQmxEBP8zYl6jMrVN8p4TO5X4E4KKO+kRPUHDEIHHRrveJgXytbWWz9CrhxeBX8qw2ZEKRllHt4nC27g/X7aXqQok= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=beta; h=message-id:date:from:user-agent:mime-version:to:cc:subject:references:in-reply-to:content-type:content-transfer-encoding; b=h+HOQKN2ezOl5MZQPuC58U6hyTHcnVhUsXvEQqs1ApAdVWQLVhlypVogTZ3F25YLM7Va/pgdcWtts1jJFC14Sk+GNfXdpl6YHu/8Va2nC9xffdR5/aqyPpvRTBdYLmjowWoVq5A8Z0barzQca2KquFbyzvxpB1TwCgX+ISoiLrg= Received: by 10.115.73.20 with SMTP id a20mr12733802wal.32.1206393674238; Mon, 24 Mar 2008 14:21:14 -0700 (PDT) Received: from ?169.229.240.211? ( [169.229.240.211]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id n40sm13350407wag.34.2008.03.24.14.21.12 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=RC4-MD5); Mon, 24 Mar 2008 14:21:13 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <47E81BA9.303@gmail.com> Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2008 14:22:49 -0700 From: paul rivers User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.12 (X11/20080227) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: "Matthew T. O'Connor" CC: Steve Poe , pgsql-performance@postgresql.org Subject: Re: Planning hot/live backups? References: <721b21dc0803241323u73443060w3a1912d52714549b@mail.gmail.com> <47E8128E.1060600@zeut.net> In-Reply-To: <47E8128E.1060600@zeut.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Virus-Scanned: Maia Mailguard 1.0.1 X-Archive-Number: 200803/450 X-Sequence-Number: 29404 Matthew T. O'Connor wrote: > Steve Poe wrote: >> The owners of the animal hospital where I work at want to consider >> live/hot >> backups through out the day so we're less likely to lose a whole >> day of transaction. We use Postgresql 8.0.15. We do 3AM >> backups, using pg_dumpall, to a file when there is very little activity. > > > > You probably want to look into PITR, you can have a constant ongoing > backup of your data and never lose more than a few minutes of data. > The overhead isn't all the big especially if you are shipping the log > files to a separate server. > > I'll second that. PITR is IMHO the way to go, and I believe you'll be pleasantly surprised how easy it is to do. As always, test your backup strategy by restoring. Even better, make a point of periodically testing a restore of production backups to a non-production system. Paul