Re: Point in time recovery?

On Sat, Mar 15, 2003 at 10:25:29AM +0000, eivind.arnesen@netcom.no wrote:
> In order to recommend and support PostgreSQL, we need to make sure
> that our data will be safe using PostgreSQL.

[. . .]

> to load the last backup from pg_dump.  However, what about transactions
> that has occured after the last backup? Would we be able to roll
> forward to a particular point in time, so that the chances for data
> loss is minimal?  I've heard that this feature is currently missing,
> but that it will be introduced in version 7.4 which should be out this
> year.
>
> My problem is that we cannot recommend this product unless this feature
> is present.

While point-in-time is not available, you mentioned that you are
already using an assortment of other products, including Oracle and
SQL Server.

You could use replication to do some of what you want, instead.
PostgreSQL has a number of possible replication approaches.  All of
these are asynchronous, at the moment.  Some are free, and some
require a commercial license.

You don't need a sophisticated machine to be a replication target:
you need enough disk, of course, but that's relatively cheap these
days.  So you could set up a replicated system for most medium-sized
databases reasonably inexpensively -- certainly, for less than the
cost of an annual commercial Oracle license.

This answer is not perfect, and it may still require some additional
work on the part of a dba.  But if your clients want a free database,
and really need PITR, then this could be an answer.

A

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