Re: Upgrading databases

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> I have a 8.2.4 database and I installed 8.3.7 and tried using the 
> same /pgsql/data/base directory and got an error about incompatiblity.
...
> Is there a conversion routine to change the files themselves? I know I can dump
> and reload - but that takes large disk space and time. Any other way around?

There are basically four ways to upgrade:

1. Dump and restore. As you mention, it is slow and non-concurrent. Very large
block of client downtime.

2. pg_migrator. Conversion of your current system to the new one. Much faster
than dump and restore, but only works for certain versions and has some minor
caveats. Requires medium client downtime.

3. Slony. Setup a slave database, get everything in sync, then switch over to the
new database. Very minimal downtime (seconds to minutes). Requires all tables
have primary keys.

4. Bucardo. Similar to the steps of Slony above. More forgiving of interruptions
in the original replication event.

- --
Greg Sabino Mullane greg@turnstep.com
End Point Corporation
PGP Key: 0x14964AC8 200911141026
http://biglumber.com/x/web?pk=2529DF6AB8F79407E94445B4BC9B906714964AC8
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