Re: Backup causing poor performance - suggestions

On Mon, 2008-05-05 at 09:10 -0700, Craig James wrote:
> Campbell, Lance wrote:
> > We currently backup all of our database tables per schema using pg_dump
> > every half hour. We have been noticing that the database performance
> > has been very poor during the backup process. How can I improve the
> > performance?
>
> It sounds like the goal is to have frequent, near-real-time backups of
> your databases for recovery purposes. Maybe instead of looking at
> pg_dump's performance, a better solution would be a replication system
> such as Slony, or a "warm backup" using Skype Tools.
>
> Backing up the database every half hour puts a large load on the
> system during the dump, and means you are re-dumping the same data, 48
> times per day. If you use a replication solution, the backup process
> is continuous (spread out through the day), and you're not re-dumping
> static data; the only data that moves around is the new data.
>
> I've used Slony with mixed success; depending on the complexity and
> size of your database, it can be quite effective. I've heard very
> good reports about Skype Tools, which has both a Slony-like replicator
> (not as configurable as Slony, but easier to set up and use), plus an
> entirely separate set of scripts that simplifies "warm standby" using
> WAL logging.

I think we should mention Warm Standby via pg_standby, which is part of
core software and documentation. Seems strange not to mention it at all.

--
Simon Riggs
2ndQuadrant http://www.2ndQuadrant.com