Rich:
On Tue, Mar 14, 2017 at 11:42 PM, Rich Shepard <rshepard@appl-ecosys.com> wrote:
> 2.) I'm far from being a professional DBA but if I had to back up a 13T
> database what I'd do (since I use only linux) is run pg_dump with the
> archive (tar) format, then use dirvish to synchronize it with a remote copy.
> Dirvish <http://www.dirvish.org/> uses rsync and records only changes since
> the last run. I use it to back up my server/workstation daily. I've restored
> files accidently deleted with no problems using either cp or rsync.
Dirvish ( I use it ) uses rsync, and can send only changes from the
last run, but you'll better use directory format for such a huge db,
as tar is a single file backup and you will not be able to use the
hard links and other nice things rsync/dirvish can do to preserve
space ( this way you send diffs and link unchanging files, which, if
partitioning or some other tactic for unchanging tables is used, can
result in big space savings ).
If your db is small enough I would recommend the custom format, with
built in compression. I never use tar format, as I find dir or custom
are always better than it ( and normally everything you can do with
tar x and a tar backup is possible with pg_restore, and then more ).
Francisco Olarte.
