Database backup mechanism

<br /><font face="sans-serif" size="2">Hi Folks,</font><br /><br /><font face="sans-serif" size="2">We have a
requirementto deal with large databases of the size Terabytes when we go into production. What is the best database
back-upmechanism and possible issues?</font><br /><br /><font face="sans-serif" size="2">pg_dump can back-up database
butthe dump file is limited by OS file-size limit. What about the option of compressing the dump file? How much time
doesit generally take for large databases? I heard, that it would be way too long (even one or days). I haven't tried
itout, though.</font><br /><br /><font face="sans-serif" size="2">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
keepson increasing from day1 of database creation, the back_up size if increasing drastically.</font><br /><font
face="sans-serif"size="2">Can we back-up certain subdirectories without loss of information or consistency..?</font><br
/><br/><font face="sans-serif" size="2">Any quick comments/suggestions in this regard would be very helpful.</font><br
/><br/><font face="sans-serif" size="2">Thanks in advance,</font><br /><font face="sans-serif" size="2">Ravi Kumar
Mandala</font>