Thank you for the link to the document. It provides a wealth of
information that re-inforces your stements. It is still somewhat unclear to
me what it is that would change in the database for tables that are never
updated (not inserts, updates, or deltes) after a certain point in time.
That is, if a table is unchanged after a week, what in the database would
change for the table later on? We have some tables that we will use as a
type of archive into which we woudl just insert some data for about a week
or so and that will never again be updated.
"Bill Moran" <wmoran(at)potentialtech(dot)com> wrote in message
news:20090604095554(dot)c2d57008(dot)wmoran(at)potentialtech(dot)com(dot)(dot)(dot)
> In response to "Carlos Oliva" <carlos(at)pbsinet(dot)com>:
>
>> I think that I understand. Would we need to stop the databse and then do
>> the copy? Is this the state to which you are refering? If the tables
>> never
>> changed after a week or so, what else would change in the database for
>> these
>> tables after a month, two months, or a year? Would we need to put the
>> databse in the correct state a week later, a month later, a year later?
>
> You really need to work on your posting etiquette a bit. This thread is
> painful to read because everything is jumbled together.
>
> There are two supported methods for backing up data. These are separate,
> you can do either or both, they have advantages and disadvantages.
>
> You should really read this chapter:
> http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.3/static/backup.html
>
> It seems to me that all of the questions you're asking are answered in
> there.
>
> But, specifically, if you're using pg_dump, you can specify to only back
> up certain tables, or to back up everything _except_ certain tables, and
> that would allow you to back up tables that don't change much infrequently
> and tables that change a lot more often. That will work fine from a
> database server standpoint. Whether it works for you data in particular,
> is a question that only someone familiar with your data can answer. My
> opinion: if you can't answer that question yourself, just back up
> everything
> to be safe.
>
> With filesystem level backup (or PITR, which is just filesystem backup
> without having to stop the sever and a few other cool perks) you back up
> the entire database or nothing.
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> --
> Bill Moran
> http://www.potentialtech.com
> http://people.collaborativefusion.com/~wmoran/
>
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