Re: replicating to a stopped server

On Oct 12, 2007, at 1:59 PM, Richard Huxton wrote:

> Joao Miguel Ferreira wrote:
>> Hello,
>> I have a 'strange' situation:
>> I need to make a replica copy of my database to a
>> reduntant
>> spare
>> computer.
>> The reduntant computer is not running postgres,
>> but postgres is
>> installed. The redundant computer is running in a special
>> run-level (I'm
>> talking Linux here) in which Pg is _not_ running.
>> When the primary computer crashes the redundant
>> one will be
>> rebooted in
>> 'normal' mode and Postgres must be started with the databases
>> from the
>> replica.
>
> You could use WAL archiving, but you'll want a fairly regular full-
> backup of PG's files otherwise the recovery could take a long time.
> See Ch 23 of the manuals for details.

Are you restricted to keep that second server in that special run-
level? If not, I'd consider using pg_standby with WAL archiving to
keep your failover server at most a handful of minutes behind.

Erik Jones

Software Developer | Emma®
erik(at)myemma(dot)com
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