On Apr 6, 2013, at 2:24 AM, Heikki Linnakangas <hlinnakangas@vmware.com> =
wrote:
> Incidentally, I bumped into another custom backup script just a few =
weeks back that also excluded backup_label. I don't know what the author =
was thinking when he wrote that, but it seems to be a surprisingly =
common mistake. Maybe it's the "label" in the filename that makes people =
think it's not important. Perhaps we should improve the documentation to =
make it more explicit that backup_label must be included in the backup. =
The docs already say that, though, so I suspect that people making this =
mistake have not read the docs very carefully anyway.
>=20
> Perhaps a comment in the beginning of backup_label would help:
>=20
> # NOTE: This file MUST be included in the backup. Otherwise, the =
backup
> # is inconsistent, and restoring it may result in a corrupt database.
>=20
> Jeff B., assuming that you excluded backup_label from the backup for =
some reason, do you have any thoughts on what would've helped you to =
avoid that mistake? Would a comment like above have helped - did you =
look inside backup_label at any point?
I think such a comment could be helpful. The base backups did contain =
backup_label. That is how another script would determine what WAL files =
to remove. It looked at the oldest base backup's backup_label file to =
get the oldest WAL file to keep.
My problem was that backup_label was excluded from the data directory =
when it was sync'd from the base backup. (We keep base backups separate =
from data directories, so they can be reused.) I guess it was excluded =
because it was assumed to not be used by archive recovery. So, =
clarifying backup_label's importance there seems helpful.
Thank you for your help,
- Jeff
--
Jeff Bohmer | Corporate Technology Manager | VisionLink, Inc.
First National Center | 3101 Iris Avenue, Suite 240 | Boulder CO, 80301
Office 303.402.0170 x121
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