Re: Clarification of documentation detail for upgrading minor version

On 1/24/20 6:40 AM, Phil Fisher wrote:
> Thanks to Adrian I have managed to get around this issue. Essentially
> I had to go old school and create a tar archive of the install on
> another comparable system, copy that around and then install via an
> untar. (the repo access was not available as it is a server behind
> many FW and in a secure vDatacentre).

So did you copy a RHEL repo install or a PGDG repo one?

> The one issue I ended up with (since the system runs under systemd)
> was that the directory /var/run/postgresql did not exist for some
> reason and I had to create it as when I tried to restart it there was
> a failure message. I am not sure if that was an artefact from moving
> from 9.6.6 to 9.6.16 or not but I mention it in case someone has a
> similar issue when starting up after the "upgrade".
>
> Phil
>
> On Thu, 23 Jan 2020 at 15:46, Adrian Klaver <adrian(dot)klaver(at)aklaver(dot)com> wrote:
>>
>> On 1/23/20 3:28 AM, Phil Fisher wrote:
>>> Hello
>>>
>>> I have a 9.6.6 system that misses some features. It is installed on a
>>> RHEL7 OS. Reading the 9.6 documentation to upgrade I find the
>>> following:
>>>
>>> "
>>>
>>> 18.6. Upgrading a PostgreSQL Cluster
>>>
>>> This section discusses how to upgrade your database data from one
>>> PostgreSQL release to a newer one.
>>>
>>> PostgreSQL major versions are represented by the first two digit
>>> groups of the version number, e.g., 8.4. PostgreSQL minor versions are
>>> represented by the third group of version digits, e.g., 8.4.2 is the
>>> second minor release of 8.4. Minor releases never change the internal
>>> storage format and are always compatible with earlier and later minor
>>> releases of the same major version number, e.g., 8.4.2 is compatible
>>> with 8.4, 8.4.1 and 8.4.6. To update between compatible versions, you
>>> simply replace the executables while the server is down and restart
>>> the server. The data directory remains unchanged — minor upgrades are
>>> that simple."
>>>
>>> Can someone please clarify what actions should be taken for this (see
>>> penultimate sentence)? If I install (yum upgrade for example) then I
>>> believe all updated files will be updated and that does not seem to be
>>> the message in the above. While I can install to a different area
>>> (and since I will be using the PGDG repo it WILL be different) I could
>>
>> Are you currently using the PGDG repos?
>>
>> If so then the files will be installed in the same locations. They will
>> just be the new versions.
>>
>>> do this and manually copy the 'bin' directory. However, I would have
>>> expected to have to copy the 'libs' directory as well and perhaps
>>> others (excluding doc etc.). I will be moving to a 9.6.16 version so
>>> that seems to comply with the restrictions mentioned in the
>>> documentation (and for the avoidance of good people saying use a later
>>> version and do a major upgrade that is not currently
>>> possible/feasible).
>>>
>>> Grateful for any detailed advice on the correct path for the above.
>>> Thanks.
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Adrian Klaver
>> adrian(dot)klaver(at)aklaver(dot)com
>
>
>

--
Adrian Klaver
adrian(dot)klaver(at)aklaver(dot)com