Thread: Disaster Database recovery
We have a Postgres database that is so huge(images are stored inside the database) that any Pg_dump configuration I triedwouldn't finish. After taking with the software vendor it was decided that nightly a pg_dump would be done excludingthe table with the images in it. Then once a week the images would be backed up by stopping the server, tar & zippingthe whole folder where the database resided. The database and the backup lived on different volumes but all on thesame SAN. The SAN failed one afternoon and completely died the next AM. We were left with nothing. The drives werecollected and sent to a data recovery specialist. I am fairly certain that the tar/zip that was created of the databasefolder is corrupt because during that couple hour window between the first drive failure the ultimate third drivefailure. I checked out the backup and it had some issues. We purchased and configured a new SAN unit and have volumes created for the Postgres Database that duplicate what the oldSAN looked like. So when(I have to think when and not IF) I get the data back, can I just copy the old postgres databasefolder contents to the new location and start the service back up? I've contacted the software vendor and they said...."We don't have a postgres expert on staff, so you are sort of on yourown with that" Any advice? Teri L. Holmes Benton County Central Services 509 786 5603 --------------------------------------------------- Chaos reigns within Reflect, repent, and reboot. Order shall return. ---------------------------------------------------
On Wed, Jun 23, 2010 at 05:01:16PM -0700, Teri Holmes wrote: > We have a Postgres database that is so huge(images are stored inside the > database) that any Pg_dump configuration I tried wouldn't finish. After > taking with the software vendor it was decided that nightly a pg_dump would > be done excluding the table with the images in it. Then once a week the > images would be backed up by stopping the server, tar & zipping the whole > folder where the database resided. The database and the backup lived on > different volumes but all on the same SAN. The SAN failed one afternoon and > completely died the next AM. We were left with nothing. The drives were > collected and sent to a data recovery specialist. I am fairly certain that > the tar/zip that was created of the database folder is corrupt because > during that couple hour window between the first drive failure the ultimate > third drive failure. I checked out the backup and it had some issues. > > We purchased and configured a new SAN unit and have volumes created for the > Postgres Database that duplicate what the old SAN looked like. So when(I > have to think when and not IF) I get the data back, can I just copy the old > postgres database folder contents to the new location and start the service > back up? > > I've contacted the software vendor and they said...."We don't have a > postgres expert on staff, so you are sort of on your own with that" Provided you can get a valid zip file made while the database really was stopped, you should be able simply to unzip it and start a server on it. -- Joshua Tolley / eggyknap End Point Corporation http://www.endpoint.com
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Le Fri, 25 Jun 2010 10:21:33 -0600, Joshua Tolley <eggyknap@gmail.com> a écrit : > > zipping the whole folder where the database resided. The database and > > the backup lived on different volumes but all on the same SAN. The SAN ... > Provided you can get a valid zip file made while the database really was > stopped, you should be able simply to unzip it and start a server on it. And, *really really* avoid storing backup files on the same server you're saving from - if you want to stay happy happy... --