Snapshot Copy of a Postgres DB

Hi All,

I have no Postgres knowledge. I am trying to find out if it would be
possible to Snapshot a Postgres database for a
PostgreSQL user who has a mixed environment and takes Snapshot copies of
all his other databases.

What we would normally do for a database Snapshot in other database
environments is to write a script which places
the database into a hot backup mode, takes the Snapshot, and then brings
the database back into normal operational
mode.

I have talked to a couple of PostgreQL DBAs and I understand that, while
there are hot backups with pg_dump, there is
no hot backup mode that the database can be placed into in Postgres. Can
I get confirmation of this?

Assuming the answer to the above is "no", one DBA I talked to mentioned
that Postgres writes to a buffer(?) or log(?)
before the disk. So is it possible to just simply Snapshot the database
on the fly? How does Postgres handle a
situation where server running the database crashes? How does it handle
error recovery? This would be similar to
taking a snapshot on the fly....

If anyone can help me out here, it would be appreciated!

Cheers,
Rowena

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Rowena Samuel
Network Appliance, Inc.

Systems Engineer
201 City Centre Drive, Suite 900

Tel 905.804.1099 x3053
Mississauga, Ontario L5B 2T4

Cell 416.400.2060

Email rowena(at)netapp(dot)com
www.netapp.com <http://www.netapp.com/>

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