Re: Database backup mechanism

RaviKumar.Mandala@versata.com wrote:
>
> Hi Folks,
>
> We have a requirement to deal with large databases of the size 
> Terabytes when we go into production. What is the best database 
> back-up mechanism and possible issues?
>
> pg_dump can back-up database but the dump file is limited by OS 
> file-size limit. What about the option of compressing the dump file? 
> How much time does it generally take for large databases? I heard, 
> that it would be way too long (even one or days). I haven't tried it 
> out, though.
>
> What about taking zipped back-up of the database directory? We tried 
> this out but the checkpoint data in pg_xlogs directory is also being 
> backed-up. Since these logs keeps on increasing from day1 of database 
> creation, the back_up size if increasing drastically.
> Can we back-up certain subdirectories without loss of information or 
> consistency..?
>
> Any quick comments/suggestions in this regard would be very helpful.
>

Please ask in the correct forum, either pgsql-general or pgsql-admin. 
This list is strictly for discussion of development of postgres, not 
usage questions.

(If all you need is a pg_dump backup, maybe you could just pipe its 
output to something like 'split -a 5 -b 1000m - mybackup')

cheers

andrew