Re: reliable backup techniques

On Wednesday 19 Feb 2003 5:23 pm, Ed L. wrote:
> I'd like to get some opinions on the best techniques for getting
> reliably consistent backups.  My current understanding is that the
> only reliable way to get a consistent backup of a running system is
> through pg_dump or pg_dumpall.

Correct (pretty much).

> More specifically, it is my
> understanding that file backups (tar, etc) do not guarantee
> consistency due to the potential lag in cache writes to disk from
> running transactions.

Correct.

> Is my understanding correct?  Are there other ways of getting
> consistent backups of a live system?

1. Stop postgresql alltogether, backup the entire data/base directory.
2. Replication (see mailing list archives/website for options)

pg_dump is almost certainly your best bet.

--
  Richard Huxton