Thread: backup and restore questions
Thank you all for replying. I appreciate the tips. Apologies to those who were offended by the html formating. Scott, quick question. The reason I assumed insert would be "safer" than copy is because the docs say that in the case of copy it fails on a single corrupted row whereas insert won't? Sally _________________________________________________________________ Stay informed on Election 2004 and the race to Super Tuesday. http://special.msn.com/msn/election2004.armx
On Fri, 20 Feb 2004, Sally Sally wrote: > Thank you all for replying. I appreciate the tips. Apologies to those who > were offended by the html formating. > Scott, quick question. The reason I assumed insert would be "safer" than > copy is because the docs say that in the case of copy it fails on a single > corrupted row whereas insert won't? Right. What that means in plain terms though is that a single rows causes an entire import of a table to fail. While individual inserts, which are handled by individual transaction, can individually fail. You can, however, edit the dump / extract a portion of it and wrap it in a begin / commit pair. Note that postgresql will not commit any transaction with an error, so you don't have to worry about it accidentally commiting if the data errors out. Also, collecting as many inserts as possible in a transaction will generally make postgresql faster, up to a point. While there's no great gain in inserting any more than a few thousand rows at a time, there's no real harm in inserting many more (million). Unlike Oracle, which uses rollback segments, postgresql uses the free disk space to just add new tuples, so there's no real world limit to the size of your transactions, except for the real world issue that a transaction taking that long to insert rows may be an issue if you need to see the data from other clients as it comes in. In terms of importing, it may often be that you just want the good rows, dump the bad, and move on. If this is the case, individual inserts are the best choice. It is also fairly slow due to the fact that Postgesql must build up and tear down a transaction for each row. you may also have data that every row must go in, or you don't want any of it. If this is the case, either the copy command, or a series of inserts inside the same transaction are the best choice. They are also the fastest, with copy slightly outperforming the inserts, at least in the past. I haven't really tested one against the other lately because with 7.4 it's all so damned fast I only take about 15 minutes to backup or restore our whole database.
I was trying to restore a zipped plain text dump created like this: pg_dump --table=class --data-only school | gzip > school_class_dump.gz I tried all the following combinations with pg_restore and it didn't work cat school_class_dump.gz | gunzip | pg_restore -d school --format=c error: [archiver] did not find magic string in file header cat school_class_dump.gz | gunzip | pg_restore -d school pg_restore: [archiver] input file does not appear to be a valid archive I gunzipped and did pg_restore -d school school_class_dump error: [archiver] input file does not appear to be a valid archive Does pg_restore really recognize plain text (version 7.4)? Sally >From: "V i s h a l Kashyap @ [Sai Hertz And Control Systems]" ><sank89@sancharnet.in> >Reply-To: aspire420@hotpop.com >To: Sally Sally <dedeb17@hotmail.com> >CC: pgsql-general@postgresql.org >Subject: Re: [GENERAL] backup and restore questions >Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2004 00:16:56 +0530 > >Dear Sally Sally , > >>I had a few questions concerning the backup/restore process for pg. >> 1) Is it possible to dump data onto an existing database that contains >>data (assumning the schema of both are the same). Has anyone done this? I >>am thinking of this in order to expediate the data load process > >This can work provided the database are on same system and have have same >schema not tried though. > >> 2) I read that when dumping and restoring data the insert option is >>safer but slower than copy? Does anyone know from experience how much >>slower (especially for a database containing millions of records). > >If you are real serious about your data best way AFAIK is insert because >with insert statments you can move around in case >you upgrade your database or add a new colum in new table but trying to >restore a old data of the same table. >On an >Celeron 900 >PostgreSQL 7.3.4 >RH 9.0 >a 151Kb tared backup takes about 5 Minutes. >Though data restore depends 99 % on disk throughput 1% on CPU in case of >plain insert file >and 90 % on disk throughput and 10 % CPU in case of tared file. > >> 3) can pg_restore accept a file that is not archived like a zipped file >>or plain text file (file.gz or file) > >Can use both zipped and Plain. New versions of pg_restore i.e 7.3 > >identify the file format automatically > >> 4) Is the general practise to have one whole dump of a database or >>several separate dumps (by table etc...)? > >One dump for data and other dump for schema will always help. > >-- >Regards, >Vishal Kashyap >Director / Lead Developer, >Sai Hertz And Control Systems Pvt Ltd, >http://saihertz.rediffblogs.com >~*~*~*~*~*~*~* >You Guys start coding I will take care of what this >customers needs. >~*~*~*~*~*~*~* >I Know you believe my words so logon to Jabber.org >and add vishalkashyap@jabber.org to your roster. > OR >Seek Me at 264360076 >~*~*~*~*~*~*~* >I am usually called as Vishal Kashyap >but my Girlfriend calls me as Vishal CASH UP. >This is because others identify me because of my >generosity but my Girlfriend identify me because >of my CASH. >~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* > > >---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- >TIP 2: you can get off all lists at once with the unregister command > (send "unregister YourEmailAddressHere" to majordomo@postgresql.org) _________________________________________________________________ Dream of owning a home? Find out how in the First-time Home Buying Guide. http://special.msn.com/home/firsthome.armx
On Mon, Feb 23, 2004 at 04:28:48PM +0000, Sally Sally wrote: > I was trying to restore a zipped plain text dump created like this: > > pg_dump --table=class --data-only school | gzip > school_class_dump.gz <snip> > > Does pg_restore really recognize plain text (version 7.4)? Nope, never has. For plain text dumps, just use psql. -- Martijn van Oosterhout <kleptog@svana.org> http://svana.org/kleptog/ > If the Catholic church can survive the printing press, science fiction > will certainly weather the advent of bookwarez. > http://craphound.com/ebooksneitherenorbooks.txt - Cory Doctorow