Re: starting postgres with several Data directories

On Mon, Dec 21, 2009 at 1:46 PM, Julius T <julius(at)nsoft(dot)lt> wrote:
> Hello, pgsql guru
>
> I have windows version of postgres 8.4 for experiments.
> At first - what I have done so far:
> 1. Copied content of Data directory to Data2
> 2. Changed the port to 5433 in Data2\postgresql.conf
> 3. Started postgres from commant prompt like (F:/Program
> Files/PostgreSQL/8.4/bin/pg_ctl.exe start -N "postgresql-8.42" -D
> "F:/Program Files/PostgreSQL/8.4/data2" -w)
> 4. Started service of postgres (witch uses Data directory).
> 5. Test the connection with PgAdmin. Connection OK. Inserting into table of
> one server instance doesn't effect second one. Everything seems to work OK.
>
> I wanted to ask if it is OK to start several instances of postgres pointing
> to different data directories? I guess thats what the data directories are
> after all, but because I failed to find some assurance while google'ing I'm
> asking the question. It would be a crying shame to ruin production DB
> because of experimental stuff. :)

Yes, it's fine. Make a different data dir, point the postgresql.conf
gile to a different tcp port and off ya go. I do it all the time to
test slony setup at work.