Thread: Question to safe way for minor update

Question to safe way for minor update

From
"Thomas Papke"
Date:
Hello,

two questions regarding postgres installation:

1. i am running a large postgres 8.1.4 database in production. What is a
good and safe way for an minor update to 8.1.8 (less downdown and possible
jump back option)?
Installation in a separate directory?
--> maybe i could compile it with installation path to
/usr/local/pgsql/current , but current is an symbolic link to the actual
version 8.1.8 - and i could jump back to the old version. Any problems
here? During install i have defined the --prefix to
"/usr/local/pgsql/current -  during make install -> could i set this to
/usr/local/pgsql/8.1.8 and later set the symlink of current?

How riskful is an minor update for the data files?

2. i am using two dualcore opterons with 8GB memory - if i am using the
CFLAGS="-O2" option for compile optimization --> is there any real
performance boost?

Thanks a lot for answer,
Thomas

Re: Question to safe way for minor update

From
Peter Eisentraut
Date:
Thomas Papke wrote:
> 1. i am running a large postgres 8.1.4 database in production. What
> is a good and safe way for an minor update to 8.1.8 (less downdown
> and possible jump back option)?

Using binary packages, install the new one over the old one, and if you
don't like it, install the old one over the new one.

> How riskful is an minor update for the data files?

Not riskful.

> 2. i am using two dualcore opterons with 8GB memory - if i am using
> the CFLAGS="-O2" option for compile optimization --> is there any
> real performance boost?

I don't think anyone has ever seriously considered building with
anything less than -O2 for anything but debugging purposes or coping
with buggy compilers on rare architectures.  In other words, there
isn't any good reason not to do it.

--
Peter Eisentraut
http://developer.postgresql.org/~petere/

Re: Question to safe way for minor update

From
"Thomas Papke"
Date:
Thank you,

Then i'll try something like this for configure:
./configure CFLAGS='-march=opteron -O2 -pipe'

AN other question: Are the postgres datafiles (not the dump) platform
independ? So is it possible to just copy the datafiles from linux to a
windows machine if they are running the same postgres version?

Thomas


> Thomas Papke wrote:
>> 1. i am running a large postgres 8.1.4 database in production. What
>> is a good and safe way for an minor update to 8.1.8 (less downdown
>> and possible jump back option)?
>
> Using binary packages, install the new one over the old one, and if you
> don't like it, install the old one over the new one.
>
>> How riskful is an minor update for the data files?
>
> Not riskful.
>
>> 2. i am using two dualcore opterons with 8GB memory - if i am using
>> the CFLAGS="-O2" option for compile optimization --> is there any
>> real performance boost?
>
> I don't think anyone has ever seriously considered building with
> anything less than -O2 for anything but debugging purposes or coping
> with buggy compilers on rare architectures.  In other words, there
> isn't any good reason not to do it.
>
> --
> Peter Eisentraut
> http://developer.postgresql.org/~petere/
>
> ---------------------------(end of broadcast)---------------------------
> TIP 1: if posting/reading through Usenet, please send an appropriate
>        subscribe-nomail command to majordomo@postgresql.org so that your
>        message can get through to the mailing list cleanly
>
>


Re: Question to safe way for minor update

From
Peter Eisentraut
Date:
Thomas Papke wrote:
> AN other question: Are the postgres datafiles (not the dump) platform
> independ?

No.

> So is it possible to just copy the datafiles from linux to
> a windows machine if they are running the same postgres version?

There is no guarantee or direct check against this, but anecdotal
evidence suggests that this combination will not work.  In general, the
data file compatibility is determined by some combination of
architecture and compiler settings.

--
Peter Eisentraut
http://developer.postgresql.org/~petere/

Re: Question to safe way for minor update

From
Thomas Papke
Date:
Right now our 8.1.4 is running without any compiler options. Any possible problem if i will compile the 8.1.8 with CLAGS -O2 -march=Opteron --> will the datafiles of the 8.1.4 non optimized postgres make any problems?

Thanks a lot,
Thomas

Peter Eisentraut schrieb:
Thomas Papke wrote: 
1. i am running a large postgres 8.1.4 database in production. What
is a good and safe way for an minor update to 8.1.8 (less downdown
and possible jump back option)?   
Using binary packages, install the new one over the old one, and if you 
don't like it, install the old one over the new one.
 
How riskful is an minor update for the data files?   
Not riskful.
 
2. i am using two dualcore opterons with 8GB memory - if i am using
the CFLAGS="-O2" option for compile optimization --> is there any
real performance boost?   
I don't think anyone has ever seriously considered building with 
anything less than -O2 for anything but debugging purposes or coping 
with buggy compilers on rare architectures.  In other words, there 
isn't any good reason not to do it.
 

Re: Question to safe way for minor update

From
Peter Eisentraut
Date:
Thomas Papke wrote:
> Right now our 8.1.4 is running without any compiler options. Any
> possible problem if i will compile the 8.1.8 with CLAGS -O2
> -march=Opteron --> will the datafiles of the 8.1.4 non optimized
> postgres make any problems?

No.

--
Peter Eisentraut
http://developer.postgresql.org/~petere/