Book Image

PostgreSQL Administration Cookbook, 9.5/9.6 Edition - Third Edition

Book Image

PostgreSQL Administration Cookbook, 9.5/9.6 Edition - Third Edition

Overview of this book

PostgreSQL is a powerful opensource database management system; now recognized as the expert's choice for a wide range of applications, it has an enviable reputation for performance and stability. PostgreSQL provides an integrated feature set comprising relational database features, object-relational, text search, Geographical Info Systems, analytical tools for big data and JSON/XML document management. Starting with short and simple recipes, you will soon dive into core features, such as configuration, server control, tables, and data. You will tackle a variety of problems a database administrator usually encounters, from creating tables to managing views, from improving performance to securing your database, and from using monitoring tools to using storage engines. Recipes based on important topics such as high availability, concurrency, replication, backup and recovery, as well as diagnostics and troubleshooting are also given special importance. By the end of this book, you will have all the knowledge you need to run, manage, and maintain PostgreSQL efficiently.
Table of Contents (13 chapters)

Hot physical backup and continuous archiving

This recipe describes how to set up a hot physical backup with a continuous archiving mechanism. The purpose of continuous archiving is to allow us to recover to any point in time from the time of the backup.

Manually performing each step of this procedure is a great way to gain a clear understanding of PostgreSQL's backup and restore infrastructure. However, to reduce the chances of human errors, it is best practice to avoid reliance on complex activities that must be performed by a human operator.

Procedures such as taking a hot physical backup or restoring it up to a given point in time can be performed using specialized third-party tools such as: