Re: Extract (Recover) data from a cluster built on a different architecture (ARM).

Phil Couling <couling@gmail.com> writes:
> I'm looking for a way to extract the data from a PostgreSQL 8.3.14
> database (cluster) that was built using an an ARM/Linux server.  The
> problem is that the hardware itself is a brick and the replacement
> hardware will be X86/AMD64.

> Sadly my backups are all copies of the DB files and don't include a
> recent text based dump (fail!).  All attempts so far to start up a
> server using the original files have failed with a couple of different
> errors (Failed to parse...).  I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion
> that this is to do with endianness.  X86 is little endian whereas ARM
> is primarily big endian.

> Are there any tools for recovering data from a database built with a
> different architecture or is my data toast unless I can lay my hands
> on an ARM box?

You might possibly be able to do it with a different big-endian machine
such as PPC (it would also have to match on alignment rules and
floating-point format, but I think you'd probably squeak by on those).
Cedric's suggestion of an emulator is probably a surer answer though.

            regards, tom lane