Erik Jones <erik(at)myemma(dot)com> writes:
> Hello, we recently migrated our system from 8.1.x to 8.2 and when
> running dumps have noticed an extreme decrease in speed where the dump
> is concerned (by more than a factor of 2).
That's odd. pg_dump is normally pretty much I/O bound, at least
assuming your tables are sizable. The only way it wouldn't be is if you
have a datatype with a very slow output converter. Have you looked into
exactly which tables are slow to dump and what datatypes they contain?
(Running pg_dump with log_min_duration_statement enabled would provide
useful data about which steps take a long time, if you're not sure.)
regards, tom lane