Thread: lost database

I am working with someone who has been running creating and maintaining his own database. He somehow managed to blow away his database and needs to restore. However, he has not been running regular dumps because he figured the tape backups were enough.
Is there anyway that I can assist him in retreiving his tables from backup tapes? I am not sure how or where that data is stored.
Thanks
Jodi Kanter

Is there a way to force a shared object to reload?  I've compiled a new
version of a .so, but postgres seems to be pulling the old version out
of memory.  I've tried deleting the .so and recompiling it, but postgres
is insistant, for some reason, of using the old version.  Any ideas?
 Thanks for the help

Kris

Jodi Kanter wrote:
> Is there anyway that I can assist him in retreiving his tables from
> backup tapes? I am not sure how or where that data is stored.

Tell us more about how the backup was made, then we can tell you more
about how to restore it.

Kris Kiger wrote:
> Is there a way to force a shared object to reload?  I've compiled a
> new version of a .so, but postgres seems to be pulling the old
> version out of memory.  I've tried deleting the .so and recompiling
> it, but postgres is insistant, for some reason, of using the old
> version.  Any ideas? Thanks for the help

Use the LOAD command or just restart the session.

Is it a postgres shared object only?  Then shuting down and restarting
postgres should have worked.  If it is a OS shared object then my best guess
is postgres will see it already in memory and not reload the object/lib.  In
which case you will need to bounce the OS.  Is it possible another program
is also using that object?  Then shuting that program down also and
restarting postgres may do the trick.

One thing though, if the OS or another program is also using that shared
object isn't there a risk to having a newer version being loaded by postgres
affect other things?


----- Original Message -----
From: "Kris Kiger" <kris@musicrebellion.com>
To: "Postgres Admin List" <pgsql-admin@postgresql.org>
Sent: Tuesday, December 09, 2003 10:35 AM
Subject: [ADMIN] Postgres grabbing an old shared object


> Is there a way to force a shared object to reload?  I've compiled a new
> version of a .so, but postgres seems to be pulling the old version out
> of memory.  I've tried deleting the .so and recompiling it, but postgres
> is insistant, for some reason, of using the old version.  Any ideas?
>  Thanks for the help
>
> Kris
>
>
> ---------------------------(end of broadcast)---------------------------
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>
>

I am not sure I understand your question. why does the type of backup matter? It is a tape backup and it includes the entire /var directory where the pgsql directory exists. I am trying to determine what particular files need to be retrieved in order to restore the database as it existed yesterday. Is this possible?
Thanks for the assistance.
Jodi

Peter Eisentraut wrote:

Jodi Kanter wrote: 

Is there anyway that I can assist him in retreiving his tables from
backup tapes? I am not sure how or where that data is stored.   

Tell us more about how the backup was made, then we can tell you more 
about how to restore it.


---------------------------(end of broadcast)---------------------------
TIP 4: Don't 'kill -9' the postmaster
 

Kris Kiger wrote:

> Is there a way to force a shared object to reload?  I've compiled a new
> version of a .so, but postgres seems to be pulling the old version out
> of memory.  I've tried deleting the .so and recompiling it, but postgres
> is insistant, for some reason, of using the old version.  Any ideas?
> Thanks for the help
>

See the LOAD command:
http://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/sql-load.html

Joe

Jodi Kanter wrote:
> I am not sure I understand your question. why does the type of backup
> matter? It is a tape backup and it includes the entire /var directory
> where the pgsql directory exists.

That was the missing piece of information.

> I am trying to determine what
> particular files need to be retrieved in order to restore the
> database as it existed yesterday. Is this possible?
> Thanks for the assistance.

Shut down the server if still running, put back the entire data
directory (probably /var/lib/pgsql in your case), and start the server.
Partial restoration is not possibly from file system backup.

Jodi Kanter wrote:
> I am not sure I understand your question. why does the type of backup
> matter? It is a tape backup and it includes the entire /var directory
> where the pgsql directory exists. I am trying to determine what
> particular files need to be retrieved in order to restore the database
> as it existed yesterday. Is this possible?
> Thanks for the assistance.

Restore the entire $PGDATA directory. If this is a default Red Hat
system that would be something like /var/lib/pgsql/data

HTH,

Joe

I'm assuming you are using pg_dumpall for your backups.  In that case, i'd restore the instance somewhere else, and pg_dump the one database.

At 09:12 AM 12/9/2003, Jodi Kanter wrote:

I am working with someone who has been running creating and maintaining his own database. He somehow managed to blow away his database and needs to restore. However, he has not been running regular dumps because he figured the tape backups were enough.
Is there anyway that I can assist him in retreiving his tables from backup tapes? I am not sure how or where that data is stored.
Thanks
Jodi Kanter
--

_______________________________
Jodi L Kanter
BioInformatics Database Administrator
University of Virginia
(434) 924-2846
jkanter@virginia.edu

 

 

 

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