Jamie Echlin wrote:
> What I'm trying to say is that I configured it to keep (60/5) * 24 segments plus a few spare, because
> I am switching xlog every 5 mins. But if there is heavy load then they will be generated more often
> than every 5 mins, so that number won't be enough.
You should delete archived WAL files by age, that way you shouldn't
have a problem.
> But I think it's a moot point because they seem to be useless unless you have all of them up to the
> last base backup. Which to me indicates I need to do a base backup every day...?
You just need any base backup plus *all* archived WALs
since the beginning of the backup.
Of course you want a fairly recent backup, otherwise
applying the WAL files can take very long.
It is a good idea to keep more than one base backup in case
something goes wrong (bad backup).
Another reason to keep older backups is that you may want to recover
to a point in time that lies further in the past, e.g. if it takes some
time to discover a problem that requires recovery (corruption, ...).
Yours,
Laurenz Albe