Using PostgreSQL 8.3.7, I'd like to make a 'hot' backup of my dbases.
I've been using "pg_dumpall -c -o" for a while, but I realize that this is
no good. After all, for a restore, the PostgreSQL server needs to be up!
And what happens if the dbases crash/become corrupted (say, after a
power-outage), and PostgreSQL won't start up any more? In MySQL, this was
easy. In a Perl script I did something like: "FLUSH TABLES WITH READ
LOCK", and then I proceeded to tar the entire dbases directory (so I could
untar, without the MySQL server needing to be up).
Can something similiar be done in PostgreSQL, *without* bringing down the
server in its entirety?
Thanks,
- Mark