Message-ID: <4FFC4C76.8090203@pinpointresearch.com>
Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2012 08:38:30 -0700
From: Steve Crawford <scrawford@pinpointresearch.com>
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To: Chris Preston <chris@thetrafalgartravel.com>
CC: pgsql-sql@postgresql.org
Subject: Re: Simple Upgrade from PostgreSQL version 8.1.11 (With schemas)
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On 07/10/2012 08:28 AM, Chris Preston wrote:
> Hello all,
> How far can I get to a higher version of PostgreSQL by just entering a
> command line instruction to upgrade without any major effort?
>
> Regards
>
> Chris Preston
>
>
At the simplest you just do a dump (using the dump tools from the *new* 
version of PostgreSQL) and restore to the new version. If you aren't 
worried about down-time and have the absolute simplest use-case then it 
isn't too difficult.

Most people have to deal with reviewing the release notes to see how 
they affect the overall system, setting up a test of the new version to 
shake out issues and planning the upgrade to minimize down-time. Among 
the things that have changed over the past few releases are tightening 
up of casting rules and changing the default for 
standard_conforming_strings to on either of which could cause serious 
breakage.

Once you get to a newer version (anything past 8.3? 8.4) you can use the 
new upgrade tools moving forward to minimize downtime during the upgrade 
process but you will *always* need to test and evaluate before deploying.

Cheers,
Steve