Re: : PostgreSQL Online Backup

Venkat Balaji wrote:
> We have had situations where-in "rsync" was executed without executing
"pg_start_backup()" on the
> production data directory and on the next runs, "pg_start_backup()"
has been executed with "rsync".
> This was to avoid high IO load on production. We ended up getting
unmatched files (especially in
> pg_clog) and not sure about "base" directory.
>
> Postgres is asking for WAL Archive files dated sometime around 15 days
ago. We are absolutely not sure
> whats going on.
>
> Is this dangerous for production (like corruption) ? or just the
backup will be invalid ? Please help
> us know if we have to perform any precautionary checks on the
production cluster.
>
> Apart from firing a checkpoint, does "pg_start_backup()" updates any
dictionary tables or views ? or
> it updates anything in "pg_xlog"
>
> Looking forward for your help !

I am not sure what the problem is.

Do you have problems starting the original PostgreSQL cluster,
or do you have problems restoring a backup?

Running pg_start_backup() will not harm the cluster.
End online backup mode by running pg_stop_backup() or removing
the backup_label file in the cluster directory.

Yours,
Laurenz Albe