Received: from maia.hub.org (maia-5.hub.org [200.46.204.29]) by mail.postgresql.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0C48EB5DBC8 for ; Sat, 21 May 2011 20:46:05 -0300 (ADT) Received: from mail.postgresql.org ([200.46.204.86]) by maia.hub.org (mx1.hub.org [200.46.204.29]) (amavisd-maia, port 10024) with ESMTP id 11802-01 for ; Sat, 21 May 2011 23:45:58 +0000 (UTC) X-Greylist: domain auto-whitelisted by SQLgrey-1.7.6 Received: from asmtpout018.mac.com (asmtpout018.mac.com [17.148.16.93]) by mail.postgresql.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E6CD3B5D91F for ; Sat, 21 May 2011 20:45:57 -0300 (ADT) MIME-version: 1.0 Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Content-type: text/plain; CHARSET=US-ASCII Received: from [192.168.2.19] (c-67-170-49-16.hsd1.wa.comcast.net [67.170.49.16]) by asmtp018.mac.com (Oracle Communications Messaging Exchange Server 7u4-20.01 64bit (built Nov 21 2010)) with ESMTPSA id <0LLK00AWYKOJXC00@asmtp018.mac.com> for pgsql-sql@postgresql.org; Sat, 21 May 2011 16:45:56 -0700 (PDT) X-Proofpoint-Virus-Version: vendor=fsecure engine=2.50.10432:5.4.6813,1.0.148,0.0.0000 definitions=2011-05-21_05:2011-05-20, 2011-05-21, 1970-01-01 signatures=0 X-Proofpoint-Spam-Details: rule=notspam policy=default score=0 spamscore=0 ipscore=0 suspectscore=1 phishscore=0 bulkscore=0 adultscore=0 classifier=spam adjust=0 reason=mlx engine=6.0.2-1012030000 definitions=main-1105210146 Subject: Re: Which version of PostgreSQL should I use. From: Basil Bourque In-reply-to: <1A897194-293D-4311-968E-E765B5A63606@thespidernet.com> Date: Sat, 21 May 2011 16:45:54 -0700 Message-id: <790CEE72-260B-47DD-9507-5F65EC3FA324@me.com> References: <1A897194-293D-4311-968E-E765B5A63606@thespidernet.com> To: pgsql-sql@postgresql.org X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.1084) X-Virus-Scanned: Maia Mailguard 1.0.1 X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-1.9 tagged_above=-5 required=5 tests=BAYES_00=-1.9, RCVD_IN_DNSWL_NONE=-0.0001 X-Spam-Level: X-Archive-Number: 201105/124 X-Sequence-Number: 35408 > We're currently using psql 8.1 and are on the way to upgrading to 8.4. The tools "pg_dump" & "pg_restore" are used to extract and re-create databases. Can be used for chores such as deploying from development to production, backing up, and upgrading. http://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/app-pgdump.html http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.0/static/app-pgrestore.html The tool "pg_upgrade" is intended to help you upgrade from one version to another. Think of it as a wrapper around pg_dump & pg_restore. Has a bonus feature where you can upgrade a database in place rather than re-create it if you have a huge amount of data and too little time at the moment of officially upgrading to afford re-creating the data. http://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/pgupgrade.html You may want to go to version 9 rather than 8.4. a) 9.0 is not a major upgrade in terms of compatibility. Original plans labeled it as 8.5 for that reason. "9" was eventually chosen as a label only because of dramatic new features added. b) Some hooks were added to 9 to allow enhancements to the 'pg_upgrade' tool. It may be actually be easier to upgrade to 9 than 8.4 for that reason. > I have now been asked to start replicating our databases between servers - as a hot-copy / redundancy improvement. A relatively simple and built-in replication system was one of the major features added to version 9.0. http://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/high-availability.html > Is there are a particular version of PostgreSQL that we should be "aiming" to upgrade to that provides for synching of databases. > My initial thought is; > We should upgrade to the latest stable version - whatever that is; Version 9.0.4 is the current stable version. Version 9.1 is due out soon. > pint me in the correct direction for some information about what's in what version and any upgrade requirements to get to XXX from 8.1 http://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/release.html --Basil Bourque