On Mon, Oct 9, 2017 at 6:40 AM, Ron Johnson <ron.l.john...@cox.net> wrote:
> Hi, > > v8.4.20 > > This is what the current backup script uses: > > /usr/bin/psql -U postgres -c "SELECT pg_start_backup(' > Incrementalbackup',true);" > cp -r /var/lib/pgsql/data/* $dumpdir/data/ > /usr/bin/psql -U postgres template1 -c "SELECT pg_stop_backup();" > > That's fine, as long as you have a wal archive. Although I don't know what is "Incremental" about it. If you upgrade to a version which wasn't quite so ancient, you could use pg_basebackup. > > Should it use rsync or pg_dump instead? > rsync is dangerous if not used with great care, and probably isn't going to get you much for just doing a backup. pg_dump is also fine, but it does something different, it creates a logical backup, not a physical backup. The backup from pg_dump cannot be used to seed a PITR or streaming replica. On the other hand, it can restored into a database from a different version and different architecture. And with pg_dump the pg_start_backup and pg_stop_backup are useless and confusing. Cheers