Re: Fastest way to duplicate a quite large database

On Tue, Apr 12, 2016 at 9:25 AM, Edson Richter <edsonrichter(at)hotmail(dot)com>
wrote:

> Hi!
>
> I have a database "Customer" with about 60Gb of data.
> I know I can backup and restore, but this seems too slow.
>
> Is there any other option to duplicate this database as "CustomerTest" as
> fast as possible (even fastar than backup/restore) - better if in one
> operation (something like "copy database A to B")?
> I would like to run this everyday, overnight, with minimal impact to
> prepare a test environment based on production data.
>

​Hum, I don't know exactly how to do it, but on Linux, you could put the
"Customer" database in a tablespace which resides on a BTRFS filesystem.
BTRFS can do a quick "snapshot" of the filesystem and you can then set
things for "incremental backup", as talked about here:
https://btrfs.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Incremental_Backup . From some
reading, btrfs is a performance dog compared to others.
interesting take using various filesystems for PostgreSQL:
http://www.slideshare.net/fuzzycz/postgresql-on-ext4-xfs-btrfs-and-zfs
another on btrfs + PostgreSQL
http://www.cybertec.at/2015/01/forking-databases-the-art-of-copying-without-copying/
<quote from above>
...
So we managed to take fork a 15 GB database in 6 seconds with only a small
hiccup in performance. We are ready to start up the forked database.
...
<quote/>

I got a number of hits searching on "postgresql btrfs" using Google search.

> Thanks,
>
> --
> Atenciosamente,
>
> Edson Carlos Ericksson Richter
>

--
How many surrealists does it take to screw in a lightbulb? One to hold the
griffon and one to fill the bathtub with brightly colored LEDs.

Maranatha! <><
John McKown