Feedback about hybrid SAN snap and rsync'd approach for large systemcloning

From: Jerry Sievers <gsievers19(at)comcast(dot)net>
To: pggeneral <pgsql-general(at)lists(dot)postgresql(dot)org>
Subject: Feedback about hybrid SAN snap and rsync'd approach for large systemcloning
Date: 2022-04-12 23:07:02
Message-ID: CB47B6F6-2619-4D79-97F2-412C840F2F32@comcast.net
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Suppose we have a DB cluster with an additional tablespace and we are
able to make an atomic SAN snapshot of *only* the main cluster
volume...

The additional tablespace contains only UNLOGGED relations.

We cannot snap that volume so we use rsync as follows...

1. pg_start_backup('foo');
make SAN snapshot
rsync the add'l tablespace
pg_stop_backup()

Now provision a new cluster around the snapshot and rsync'd volume,
rejigger the pg_tblspc link if necessary... and start it up maybe or
not having it remain as a streaming replica.

It's been my experience that possibly bulky data in the additional
tablespace does *not* need be rsync'd if we capture only the *_init
files.

Id' be curious to here feedback re the sanity of this approach.

And would also like to know if perhaps *only* the directories under
the rsync'd tablespace actually must be present for a successful
recovery.

The above approach has worked mumerous times even with origin systems
having large, churny contents in the dedicated unlogged tablespace
(which is on a much faster local NVME volume than the main SAN
volume.)

Thanks!

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