Am 30.07.2007 um 11:50 schrieb Jayan Chirayath Kurian: > Could you please suggest is there a need to take the backup of > PostgreSQL data directory. If so how to restore this and under > which circumstances we need to use the PostgreSQL data directory. Using pg_dump is usually better. Copying the postgresql data directory as a means of backup is kind of a last resort if everything else doesnt meet your needs. There are a lot of caveats in doing so.
This is solely a postgresql subject and in general has nothing to do with DSpace. Backing up DSpace means back- ing up the [dspace-install] directory plus the dspace postgres database whichever way seems appropriate. The postgresql docs discuss this in great depth. Copying the data directory of postgresql must not be done while postgres is running. With pg_dump you dont need to stop the database. When copying the data dir you can restore only under the same operating system and the same version of postgresql compiled with the same compiler flags. After all, this is binary data. All these dependencies can hardly be met in the moment when you really need it. In many cases you wont have an identical machine at hand when your database server machine dies. There is an even more sophisticated way of backing up postgresql which is called something like point in time recovery method. It requires you to save transaction logs continuously to another machine while running. This allows to restore really everything in case of a total crash. As there are usually not that many open transactions (id est logged in users submitting items) besides batch ingestions which can be replayed easily, I cant see a reason for this approach. So go along with pg_dump, do this carefully every day, safe your dumps in a remote place and you are done. Bye, Christian ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by: Splunk Inc. Still grepping through log files to find problems? Stop. Now Search log events and configuration files using AJAX and a browser. Download your FREE copy of Splunk now >> http://get.splunk.com/ _______________________________________________ DSpace-tech mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/dspace-tech
