Re: WAL archiving to network drive

Rob Adams wrote:
> I'm setting up WAL archiving on a Windows machine & need to copy the WAL
> files to a network drive.
>
> Is it best to give the 'postgres' user network access & archive the WAL
> files directly to the network drive? Or archive the WAL files to a local
> folder and then use a scheduled task to move them to the network drive?
> (Or something else entirely?)

I am archiving them directly, from a Linux installation, to a Windows
machine. As long as the error handling is sound, it should work OK.
I've had no problems other than some the expected down time causing WAL
files to pile up. It's been working great for a couple years now.

I write the files with an alternate file name, then rename them. That
helps make sure half written files are not mistaken for fully written ones.

I also have a little watch dog script that runs on cron every few
minutes, that counts the number of WAL files present in the xlog
directory. If that count is oddly high, I get an email. I've been
alerted to, and fixed quickly, a problem three or four times this way.