Re: 8.1 beta1 -> beta2 upgrade question

Eric Sproul wrote:

Hi,

> We are testing a 1TB database on 8.1 beta 1.  The upgrade path to beta 2
> (and presumably from beta 2 to the next release, all the way through
> production) requires a full export and import.  Even on our beefy
> hardware (quad-Opteron, 16GB RAM) we are looking at a 26-hour complete
> outage for every upgrade (and back-out if something doesn't work
> properly).  We are interested in finding a way to directly translate the
> data files from one version to the next.  We can devote resources to
> work on this if the development team can give us guidance.

There has been talk in the past about creating a tool for in-place
upgrades.  The most complete description of the needed work I've seen
posted to date is here:

http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2003-12/msg00379.php

There was another proposal after that,

http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2004-09/msg00916.php

Neither of them yielded any useful software, that I know of.

-- 
Alvaro Herrera                                http://www.PlanetPostgreSQL.org
"If you have nothing to say, maybe you need just the right tool to help you
not say it."                   (New York Times, about Microsoft PowerPoint)