Re: Simple Upgrade from PostgreSQL version 8.1.11 (With schemas)

On 07/10/2012 08:28 AM, Chris Preston wrote:
> Hello all,
> How far can I get to a higher version of PostgreSQL by just entering a
> command line instruction to upgrade without any major effort?
>
> Regards
>
> Chris Preston
>
>
At the simplest you just do a dump (using the dump tools from the *new*
version of PostgreSQL) and restore to the new version. If you aren't
worried about down-time and have the absolute simplest use-case then it
isn't too difficult.

Most people have to deal with reviewing the release notes to see how
they affect the overall system, setting up a test of the new version to
shake out issues and planning the upgrade to minimize down-time. Among
the things that have changed over the past few releases are tightening
up of casting rules and changing the default for
standard_conforming_strings to on either of which could cause serious
breakage.

Once you get to a newer version (anything past 8.3? 8.4) you can use the
new upgrade tools moving forward to minimize downtime during the upgrade
process but you will *always* need to test and evaluate before deploying.

Cheers,
Steve