Re: [ADMIN] Snapshot as Backup

[Matt Clark]

Title: Message

The consensus from previous discussions (search for 'LVM' in the archives) is essentially that it definitely *should* work, some people *do* use it successfully, but that you *must* test it thoroughly in your own setup under heavy write load before relying on it.

 

PG will believe it has 'crashed' when you start it from a restored snapshot, and PG is designed to recover perfectly well from crashes.  If you stop the postmaster before the snapshot is taken then it will definitely work fine.

 

Matt

-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]On Behalf Of Ed Murphy
Sent: 13 January 2004 17:16
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [ADMIN] Snapshot as Backup

Hello,

 

I'm using Red Hat Enterprise v2.1 and PostgreSQL v7.3.4.  Our hardware setup includes a large Storage Area Network (SAN).  The systems folks are going to utilize a snapshot type backup to backup the file system.  This snapshot will include PGDATA and all the PostgreSQL files.  My question is if I restore this snapshot will PostgreSQL work?  I know if doing a typical file system backup of PostgreSQL I must first stop the postmaster or the backup will not produce a useable PostgreSQL system.  Is it necessary to stop the postmaster for this snapshot backup also?

 

Thanks,

 

Ed Murphy

The University of Arizona