Thread: Backup and analyse

I could not easily find answers to these simple questions.

a) Does VACUUMing ( with ANALYSE ) in effect perform a file consistency
check on the database structure as a side effect?

b) Is it ok to VACUUM while the database  is alive and active?

c) Can I backup via pg_dump while the database is alive and active and
have the backup consistent to the state the database was in when the
backup started?


I'm 99.99% sure the answers are yes for all of these but I'd very much
like to have it confirmed by somebody who _really knows_.

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Sincerely etc.,

 NAME       Christopher Sawtell
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 ICQ UIN    45863470
 EMAIL      csawtell @ xtra . co . nz
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Christopher Sawtell <csawtell@xtra.co.nz> wrote:
>a) Does VACUUMing ( with ANALYSE ) in effect perform a file consistency
>check on the database structure as a side effect?

As I understand it, it is more of a cleanup than a file consistency check.

>b) Is it ok to VACUUM while the database  is alive and active?

Yes.

>c) Can I backup via pg_dump while the database is alive and active and have
>the backup consistent to the state the database was in when the backup
>started?

The backup is consistent; I assume it's consistent with the state of the
database when pg_dump was started.

HTH,
Ray
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