Re: Streaming base backups

On Wed, 2011-01-05 at 14:54 +0100, Magnus Hagander wrote:

> The basic implementation is: Add a new command to the replication mode called
> BASE_BACKUP, that will initiate a base backup, stream the contents (in tar
> compatible format) of the data directory and all tablespaces, and then end
> the base backup in a single operation.

I'm a little dubious of the performance of that approach for some users,
though it does seem a popular idea.

One very useful feature will be some way of confirming the number and
size of files to transfer, so that the base backup client can find out
the progress.

It would also be good to avoid writing a backup_label file at all on the
master, so there was no reason why multiple concurrent backups could not
be taken. The current coding allows for the idea that the start and stop
might be in different sessions, whereas here we know we are in one
session.

-- Simon Riggs           http://www.2ndQuadrant.com/books/PostgreSQL Development, 24x7 Support, Training and Services