Re: Upgrading database format on PostgreSQL 8.1 on FC6

Steve Crawford wrote:
> Arjun Datta wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I have an older server I am trying to restore a dump onto.
>>
> A _filesystem_ dump of the PG data files of or a _PostgreSQL_ dump
> using pg_dump/pg_dumpall? This sounds like a problem stemming from a
> filesystem dump.
>
> If it is a file-system dump, you will need to restore the files into
> the server's data directories. The PG server version must match the
> major version the file-system came from. Additionally, you will
> probably need to attempt the restore onto a machine of the same
> architecture. Even then, you may have problems - especially if the
> dump was made while PG was running.
>
> If you have a running version of the database somewhere you will be
> better off using the pg_dump/pg_dumpall tools to do the dump (and if
> migrating to a newer version of PG, use the pg_dump/pg_dumpall from
> the newer PG version) then restore from that dump.
>
> If you don't have the data in a currently functioning PG server and
> you do succeed in recovering the data, do a PostgreSQL dump ASAP.
>
> Cheers,
> Steve
>

Hi Steve,

Thanks for the response. I should have been clearer initially.

I have a PG dump (using pg_dumpall) from a PostgreSQL 7.3.4 server on
Redhat 7.2 that I am trying to restore.

But on the newer machine (I cannot verify if postgres has ever been run
on it or if it did when last), even before I try to restore, I notice
that on startup I get the following error.

[root(at)devdb3 8.1]# service postgresql start

An old version of the database format was found.
You need to upgrade the data format before using PostgreSQL.
See /usr/share/doc/postgresql-8.1.10/README.rpm-dist for more information.

So, even without getting to the restore stage using psql as outlined here:
http://www.postgresql.org/docs/7.4/interactive/backup.html#BACKUP-DUMP-ALL

I would like to fix the above error first.

Arjun