Re: replicating to a stopped server

On Oct 12, 2007, at 1:59 PM, Richard Huxton wrote:

> Joao Miguel Ferreira wrote:
>> Hello,
>>                 I have a 'strange' situation:
>>                 I need to make a replica copy of my database to a
>> reduntant
>>         spare
>>         computer.
>>                 The reduntant computer is not running postgres,
>> but postgres is
>>         installed. The redundant computer is running in a special
>>         run-level (I'm
>>         talking Linux here) in which Pg is _not_ running.
>>                 When the primary computer crashes the redundant
>> one will be
>>         rebooted in
>>         'normal' mode and Postgres must be started with the databases
>>         from the
>>         replica.
>
> You could use WAL archiving, but you'll want a fairly regular full-
> backup of PG's files otherwise the recovery could take a long time.
> See Ch 23 of the manuals for details.

Are you restricted to keep that second server in that special run-
level?  If not, I'd consider using pg_standby with WAL archiving to
keep your failover server at most a handful of minutes behind.

Erik Jones

Software Developer | Emma®
erik@myemma.com
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