Re: Type of application that use PostgreSQL

Quoting Richard Huxton <dev(at)archonet(dot)com>:

> On Thursday 02 October 2003 19:55, Network Administrator wrote:
> > Quoting Richard Huxton <dev(at)archonet(dot)com>:
> > > [stuff deleted]
> > >
> > > Stability is good. If you're feeling cautious, you could use 7.3.4
> rather
> > > than
> > > the forthcoming 7.4. It's had hot-backup (i.e. no need to stop the db to
> > > get
> > >
> > > a valid snapshot) for ages. It has a write-ahead-log to replay active
> > > transactions in case of a crash, and a couple of replication options.
>
> > Is the ability to do "hot-backups" removed from 7.4.x? I haven't read the
> > all of the beta3 docs yet.
>
> As Bruno says - no (and I can't imagine why anyone would).
>
> I was merely suggesting the fact that the 7.3 series is at it's fourth minor
>
> revision means it's received a lot more testing, whereas 7.4.0 still has the
>
> paint wet on it.
>
> --
> Richard Huxton
> Archonet Ltd

I agree and I figured that was the case ("hot backups" is one of the reasons I
choose Pg over some other DBs) but I wanted to be clear- more so for the archives.

The other thing is that I suspect there might be some confusion as to the
difference between "hot backups" (dump of data does not require DB to be "down")
and "online backups" (dump of data is not needed because on the disk state of
the DB is current to some "recent" time). To be perfectly honest, I've only had
to use a pg_dump file once in well over 5 years (and that was recent- it was
actually posted here) in conditions where the system with NOT proper shutdown
(at the OS or application layer). PG simply does its "housekeeping" when the
backend started up. Of course, running the VACUUM ANALYSE help confirm more
that was indeed true. I would think that is some sort of luck because as far as
I know Pg is not able to do online backups.

In any event, "hot backups" is very important to have and use for more and more
people these days. I had a conversation with a Progress guy yesterday who I
know was grimacing when I told him I didn't need to take Pg down for backup...

Oh what a feeling :)

--
Keith C. Perry
Director of Networks & Applications
VCSN, Inc.
http://vcsn.com

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