Re: Fwd: [GENERAL] 9.1.3: launching streaming replication

On Tue, Apr 3, 2012 at 7:30 PM, Greg Smith <greg(at)2ndquadrant(dot)com> wrote:

> Mike already fixed the category problem himself. I just updated
> http://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/Streaming_Replication so that it suggests
> users visit the official docs and tutorial on the wiki, since we can't just
> make Google unlike that page easily.
>

Greg, there's sort of an inconsistency between the developer-oriented
streaming replication page and the tutorial.

The streaming replication page says to copy the entire data directory,
which would include the WAL logs in the pg_xlog directory. The 5 minute
version in the binary replication tutorial skips that directory, the longer
one copies it separately, after the backup is complete, so that the slave
can perform any committed changes as part of syncing up with the master.

I assume that there is no harm in copying the pg_xlog directory in the 5
minute version, and it was left out as a time-saver. However, if the
master fails and the slave has to take over, wouldn't it need the pg_xlog
directory? If it hasn't been created, could that cause problems or would
the backend know to create it?
--
Mike Nolan