Re: Backup method

"Bob Powell" <Bob@hotchkiss.org> writes:

> Hello everyone:
>
> I have a systems admin that is backing up our Linux computers
> (postgres)  by backing up the directory structure.  This of course
> includes all the files that pertain to my postgres databases.  I
> maintain that using pgdump and creating a file of SQL commands for
> restore is a better method by allowing the restore on any linux box that
> is running postgress as opposed to having to reconstruct the directory
> on another server.

You're not guaranteed to get a recoverable database from a filesystem
backup unless you (a) take Postgres down during the backup, or (b) use
point-in-time recovery (which is documented in the manual).  So what
you're doing now isn't actually saving your data for you.

I would definitely go the pg_dump route unless you want to set up
PITR...

-Doug