Thread: pg_dumpall and large flat file

pg_dumpall and large flat file

From
"Gareth Kirwan"
Date:
Hey everyone.
 
We've got to re-install a server shortly, and I'm trying to do a dry run of reloading their data onto a similar server.
It's Postgres 7.1.3 on Redhat Linux ( 6.2 or 7.2 - not too important )
We used pg_dumpall > large to create a file that's just under 1Gb in size.
Obviously there's no vi'ing this and little hope of cat | less.
We can split the file with split -l 100000 if we need to.
 
We want to now reload this database cluster.
 
The questions:
 
1) Is pg_dumpall the best way of doing this ( it's the only way I can find )
2) Is pgsql -f large template1 the best way of reloading it
3) How long should it take ( 128mb of ram, 1ghz processor ) - roughly ( hours - days!? :-D )
 
Thanks everyone
 
Gareth Kirwan
Programming & Development,
Thermeon Europe Ltd,
gbjk@thermeoneurope.com
Tel: +44 (0) 1293 864 303
Thermeon Europe e-Card: gbjk