Re: Snapshot backups

On Thu, Jun 20, 2013 at 8:45 AM, James Sewell <james(dot)sewell(at)lisasoft(dot)com>wrote:

> Hey All,
>
> This is a message to confirm my thoughts / validate a possible approach.
>
> In a situation where PGDATA and {XLOG, ARCHIVELOG} are on different
> SAN/NAS volumes and a backup is to be initiated do pg_start_backup and
> pg_stop_backup need to be used?
>
> I am using snapshots of each volume for backup.
>
> My thinking is that they are not needed (although I realise it is good
> practice).
>
> As far as I can tell all they are doing is something like:
>
> pg_start_backup:
> - create backup label
> - trigger checkpoint
>
> pg_stop_backup
> - remove backup label file
> - creates backup history file
> - trigger log switch
>
> There is nothing in here that is *required* from a backup point of view.
> Am I missing anything?
>

The backup functions also set internal state in the database, so you can't
just replace it with doing those operations manually. You do need to call
those functions.

--
Magnus Hagander
Me: http://www.hagander.net/
Work: http://www.redpill-linpro.com/