Book Image

Learn PostgreSQL - Second Edition

By : Luca Ferrari, Enrico Pirozzi
1 (2)
Book Image

Learn PostgreSQL - Second Edition

1 (2)
By: Luca Ferrari, Enrico Pirozzi

Overview of this book

The latest edition of this PostgreSQL book will help you to start using PostgreSQL from absolute scratch, helping you to quickly understand the internal workings of the database. With a structured approach and practical examples, go on a journey that covers the basics, from SQL statements and how to run server-side programs, to configuring, managing, securing, and optimizing database performance. This new edition will not only help you get to grips with all the recent changes within the PostgreSQL ecosystem but will also dig deeper into concepts like partitioning and replication with a fresh set of examples. The book is also equipped with Docker images for each chapter which makes the learning experience faster and easier. Starting with the absolute basics of databases, the book sails through to advanced concepts like window functions, logging, auditing, extending the database, configuration, partitioning, and replication. It will also help you seamlessly migrate your existing database system to PostgreSQL and contains a dedicated chapter on disaster recovery. Each chapter ends with practice questions to test your learning at regular intervals. By the end of this book, you will be able to install, configure, manage, and develop applications against a PostgreSQL database.
Table of Contents (22 chapters)
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Index

Introducing types of backups and restores

There are mainly two types of backups that apply to PostgreSQL: the logical backup and the physical backup (also known as a hot backup). Depending on the type of backup you choose, the restore process will differ accordingly.

PostgreSQL ships all the integrated tools to perform the classical logical backup, which in most cases suffices. However, PostgreSQL can be easily configured to support physical backups, which are useful when the size of the cluster becomes huge, as well as when you have particular needs, as you will discover later in this chapter.

But what is the difference between these two backup methods? As you can imagine, they both achieve the very same aim: allowing you to get a usable “copy” of your data to restore it somewhere. The difference between the two backup strategies comes from the way data is extracted from the cluster.

A logical backup works similarly to a database client that asks for all...