Re: Massive table bloat

On 12/11/2012 11:41 AM, Michael Sawyers wrote:
> Political reasons have ruled out the dump and reload options, but restoring
> the entire database took several hours. I'm also restricted on version
> because newer versions of postgres are not supported with that specific
> product, including maintenance updates.

You may want to gently suggest that the powers-that-be start at
http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.4/static/release-8-4-15.html and work
their way back to
http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.4/static/release-8-4-2.html compiling a
complete list of data-corrupting, query-wrecking or security-damaging
issues that have been corrected in the over three years since 8.4.1 was
released.

They may also want to look at
http://www.postgresql.org/support/versioning/ - particularly the
statement, "The community considers not upgrading to be riskier than
upgrading."

Ultimately it is their responsibility to make the decision whether or
not to upgrade. It is your responsibility to provide the data necessary
to help them make an informed choice.

Cheers,
Steve