Re: a back up question

On Wed, Dec 06, 2017 at 12:52:53PM +0000, Martin Mueller wrote:

>> Are there rules for thumb for deciding when you can dump a
>> whole database and when you’d be better off dumping groups of
>> tables?

>> It seems to me we'd have to define the objective of "dumping" first ?

> The objective is to create a backup from which I can
> restore any or all tables in the event of a crash.

I see.

"Any or all" speaks in recommendation of non-plain output
formats _if_ using pg_dump.

> In my case, I use Postgres for my own scholarly purposes.
> Publications of whatever kind are not directly made public
> via the database. I am my only customer, and a service
> interruption, while a nuisance to me, does not create a
> crisis for others. I don’t want to lose my work, but a
> service interruption of a day or a week is no big deal.

In that case I would stick to pg_dump, perhaps with directory
format and then tarred and compressed, until you notice
actual problems (unbearable slowdown of the machine during
backup, running out of disk space).

My 2 cents,
Karsten
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