Re: Problems with postgres online backup - restore

Hello,

OK, what's then the difference doing a pg_start_backup() or just
doing the backup?

Isn't that a problem that the datablock are very inconsistent, even so
inconsistent that they are corrupt:

E.g. A part of a datablock is written when e.g. the file is tarred. =>
Datablock on backup is corrupt => An then even the WAL can't be applied.

Why does it work correctly? Or is there some design problem?

Thnx.

Ciao,
Gerhard

--
http://www.wiesinger.com/

On Thu, 25 Jun 2009, Richard Huxton wrote:

> Gerhard Wiesinger wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>> I'd like to understand the PostgreSQL internals in "backup mode".
>>
>> When I understood it correctly pg_start_backup() make a checkpoint and
>> stops writing to the data/ directory except the WAL.
>>
>> All new transaction go into WAL which is also logical. But how is data
>> consistency done when the written/changed blocks don't fit into the buffer
>> cache?
>
> The data isn't kept consistent. Which is why you need the WAL. Restoring from
> a PITR backup is basically the same idea as recovering from a crash. Any
> blocks that might have been updated since you called pg_start_backup() will
> be rewritten from the WAL.
>
> --
> Richard Huxton
> Archonet Ltd
>
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