>>>>> "GS" == Greg Stark <gsstark@mit.edu> writes:
GS> the first approach. I'm thinking taking a pg_dump regularly
GS> (nightly if I can get away with doing it that infrequently)
GS> keeping the past n dumps, and burning a CD with those dumps.
Basically what I do. I burn a set of CDs from one of my dumps once a
week, and keep the rest online for a few days. I'm really getting
close to splurging for a DVD writer since my dumps are way too big for
a single CD.
GS> This doesn't provide what online backups do, of recovery to the
GS> minute of the crash. And I get nervous having only logical pg_dump
GS> output, no backups of the actual blocks on disk. But is that what
GS> everybody does?
Well, if you want backups of the blocks on disk, then you need to shut
down the postmaster so that it is a consistent copy. You can't copy
the table files "live" this way.
So, yes, having the pg_dump is pretty much your safest bet to have a
consistent dump. And using a replicated slave with, eg, eRServer, is
also another way, but that requires more hardware.
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