Postgresql backup file format

An alternative backup strategy is to directly copy the files that PostgreSQL uses to store the data in the database; Section 19.2 explains where these files are located. You can use whatever method you prefer for doing file system backups; for example:

There are two restrictions, however, which make this method impractical, or at least inferior to the pg_dump method:

The database server must be shut down in order to get a usable backup. Half-way measures such as disallowing all connections will not work (in part because tar and similar tools do not take an atomic snapshot of the state of the file system, but also because of internal buffering within the server). Information about stopping the server can be found in Section 19.5. Needless to say, you also need to shut down the server before restoring the data.

If you have dug into the details of the file system layout of the database, you might be tempted to try to back up or restore only certain individual tables or databases from their respective files or directories. This will not work because the information contained in these files is not usable without the commit log files, pg_xact/* , which contain the commit status of all transactions. A table file is only usable with this information. Of course it is also impossible to restore only a table and the associated pg_xact data because that would render all other tables in the database cluster useless. So file system backups only work for complete backup and restoration of an entire database cluster.

An alternative file-system backup approach is to make a “ consistent snapshot ” of the data directory, if the file system supports that functionality (and you are willing to trust that it is implemented correctly). The typical procedure is to make a “ frozen snapshot ” of the volume containing the database, then copy the whole data directory (not just parts, see above) from the snapshot to a backup device, then release the frozen snapshot. This will work even while the database server is running. However, a backup created in this way saves the database files in a state as if the database server was not properly shut down; therefore, when you start the database server on the backed-up data, it will think the previous server instance crashed and will replay the WAL log. This is not a problem; just be aware of it (and be sure to include the WAL files in your backup). You can perform a CHECKPOINT before taking the snapshot to reduce recovery time.

If your database is spread across multiple file systems, there might not be any way to obtain exactly-simultaneous frozen snapshots of all the volumes. For example, if your data files and WAL log are on different disks, or if tablespaces are on different file systems, it might not be possible to use snapshot backup because the snapshots must be simultaneous. Read your file system documentation very carefully before trusting the consistent-snapshot technique in such situations.

If simultaneous snapshots are not possible, one option is to shut down the database server long enough to establish all the frozen snapshots. Another option is to perform a continuous archiving base backup (Section 26.3.2) because such backups are immune to file system changes during the backup. This requires enabling continuous archiving just during the backup process; restore is done using continuous archive recovery (Section 26.3.4).

Another option is to use rsync to perform a file system backup. This is done by first running rsync while the database server is running, then shutting down the database server long enough to do an rsync —checksum . ( —checksum is necessary because rsync only has file modification-time granularity of one second.) The second rsync will be quicker than the first, because it has relatively little data to transfer, and the end result will be consistent because the server was down. This method allows a file system backup to be performed with minimal downtime.

Note that a file system backup will typically be larger than an SQL dump. ( pg_dump does not need to dump the contents of indexes for example, just the commands to recreate them.) However, taking a file system backup might be faster.

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Postgresql backup file format

The idea behind this dump method is to generate a file with SQL commands that, when fed back to the server, will recreate the database in the same state as it was at the time of the dump. PostgreSQL provides the utility program pg_dump for this purpose. The basic usage of this command is:

As you see, pg_dump writes its result to the standard output. We will see below how this can be useful. While the above command creates a text file, pg_dump can create files in other formats that allow for parallelism and more fine-grained control of object restoration.

pg_dump is a regular PostgreSQL client application (albeit a particularly clever one). This means that you can perform this backup procedure from any remote host that has access to the database. But remember that pg_dump does not operate with special permissions. In particular, it must have read access to all tables that you want to back up, so in order to back up the entire database you almost always have to run it as a database superuser. (If you do not have sufficient privileges to back up the entire database, you can still back up portions of the database to which you do have access using options such as -n schema or -t table .)

To specify which database server pg_dump should contact, use the command line options -h host and -p port . The default host is the local host or whatever your PGHOST environment variable specifies. Similarly, the default port is indicated by the PGPORT environment variable or, failing that, by the compiled-in default. (Conveniently, the server will normally have the same compiled-in default.)

Like any other PostgreSQL client application, pg_dump will by default connect with the database user name that is equal to the current operating system user name. To override this, either specify the -U option or set the environment variable PGUSER . Remember that pg_dump connections are subject to the normal client authentication mechanisms (which are described in Chapter 21).

An important advantage of pg_dump over the other backup methods described later is that pg_dump ‘s output can generally be re-loaded into newer versions of PostgreSQL , whereas file-level backups and continuous archiving are both extremely server-version-specific. pg_dump is also the only method that will work when transferring a database to a different machine architecture, such as going from a 32-bit to a 64-bit server.

Dumps created by pg_dump are internally consistent, meaning, the dump represents a snapshot of the database at the time pg_dump began running. pg_dump does not block other operations on the database while it is working. (Exceptions are those operations that need to operate with an exclusive lock, such as most forms of ALTER TABLE .)

26.1.1. Restoring the Dump

Text files created by pg_dump are intended to be read in by the psql program. The general command form to restore a dump is

where dumpfile is the file output by the pg_dump command. The database dbname will not be created by this command, so you must create it yourself from template0 before executing psql (e.g., with createdb -T template0 dbname ). psql supports options similar to pg_dump for specifying the database server to connect to and the user name to use. See the psql reference page for more information. Non-text file dumps are restored using the pg_restore utility.

Before restoring an SQL dump, all the users who own objects or were granted permissions on objects in the dumped database must already exist. If they do not, the restore will fail to recreate the objects with the original ownership and/or permissions. (Sometimes this is what you want, but usually it is not.)

By default, the psql script will continue to execute after an SQL error is encountered. You might wish to run psql with the ON_ERROR_STOP variable set to alter that behavior and have psql exit with an exit status of 3 if an SQL error occurs:

Either way, you will only have a partially restored database. Alternatively, you can specify that the whole dump should be restored as a single transaction, so the restore is either fully completed or fully rolled back. This mode can be specified by passing the -1 or —single-transaction command-line options to psql . When using this mode, be aware that even a minor error can rollback a restore that has already run for many hours. However, that might still be preferable to manually cleaning up a complex database after a partially restored dump.

The ability of pg_dump and psql to write to or read from pipes makes it possible to dump a database directly from one server to another, for example:

Important

The dumps produced by pg_dump are relative to template0 . This means that any languages, procedures, etc. added via template1 will also be dumped by pg_dump . As a result, when restoring, if you are using a customized template1 , you must create the empty database from template0 , as in the example above.

After restoring a backup, it is wise to run ANALYZE on each database so the query optimizer has useful statistics; see Section 25.1.3 and Section 25.1.6 for more information. For more advice on how to load large amounts of data into PostgreSQL efficiently, refer to Section 14.4.

26.1.2. Using pg_dumpall

pg_dump dumps only a single database at a time, and it does not dump information about roles or tablespaces (because those are cluster-wide rather than per-database). To support convenient dumping of the entire contents of a database cluster, the pg_dumpall program is provided. pg_dumpall backs up each database in a given cluster, and also preserves cluster-wide data such as role and tablespace definitions. The basic usage of this command is:

The resulting dump can be restored with psql :

(Actually, you can specify any existing database name to start from, but if you are loading into an empty cluster then postgres should usually be used.) It is always necessary to have database superuser access when restoring a pg_dumpall dump, as that is required to restore the role and tablespace information. If you use tablespaces, make sure that the tablespace paths in the dump are appropriate for the new installation.

pg_dumpall works by emitting commands to re-create roles, tablespaces, and empty databases, then invoking pg_dump for each database. This means that while each database will be internally consistent, the snapshots of different databases are not synchronized.

Cluster-wide data can be dumped alone using the pg_dumpall —globals-only option. This is necessary to fully backup the cluster if running the pg_dump command on individual databases.

26.1.3. Handling Large Databases

Some operating systems have maximum file size limits that cause problems when creating large pg_dump output files. Fortunately, pg_dump can write to the standard output, so you can use standard Unix tools to work around this potential problem. There are several possible methods:

Use compressed dumps. You can use your favorite compression program, for example gzip :

Use split . The split command allows you to split the output into smaller files that are acceptable in size to the underlying file system. For example, to make 2 gigabyte chunks:

If using GNU split , it is possible to use it and gzip together:

It can be restored using zcat .

Use pg_dump ‘s custom dump format. If PostgreSQL was built on a system with the zlib compression library installed, the custom dump format will compress data as it writes it to the output file. This will produce dump file sizes similar to using gzip , but it has the added advantage that tables can be restored selectively. The following command dumps a database using the custom dump format:

A custom-format dump is not a script for psql , but instead must be restored with pg_restore , for example:

See the pg_dump and pg_restore reference pages for details.

For very large databases, you might need to combine split with one of the other two approaches.

Use pg_dump ‘s parallel dump feature. To speed up the dump of a large database, you can use pg_dump ‘s parallel mode. This will dump multiple tables at the same time. You can control the degree of parallelism with the -j parameter. Parallel dumps are only supported for the «directory» archive format.

You can use pg_restore -j to restore a dump in parallel. This will work for any archive of either the «custom» or the «directory» archive mode, whether or not it has been created with pg_dump -j .

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Резервное копирование PostgreSQL

В данной инструкции рассмотрены варианты и примеры создания резервных копий и восстановления баз СУБД PostgreSQL.

Все команды, которые приводятся ниже, должны выполняться из командной строки. В Linux — это окно терминала, в Windows — командная строка (cmd.exe) с переходом в папку установки PostgreSQL.

Создание резервных копий

Базовая команда

pg_dump users > /tmp/users.dump

Пользователь и пароль

Если резервная копия выполняется не от учетной записи postgres, необходимо добавить опцию -U с указанием пользователя:

pg_dump -U dmosk -W users > /tmp/users.dump

* где dmosk — имя учетной записи; опция W потребует ввода пароля.

Сжатие данных

Для экономии дискового пространства или более быстрой передачи по сети можно сжать наш архив:

pg_dump users | gzip > users.dump.gz

Скрипт для автоматического резервного копирования

Рассмотрим 2 варианта написания скрипта для резервирования баз PostgreSQL. Первый вариант — запуск скрипта от пользователя root для резервирования одной базы. Второй — запуск от пользователя postgres для резервирования всех баз, созданных в СУБД.

Для начала, создадим каталог, в котором разместим скрипт, например:

Вариант 1. Запуск от пользователя root; одна база.

PGPASSWORD=password
export PGPASSWORD
pathB=/backup
dbUser=dbuser
database=db

find $pathB $ -name «*-1[^5].*» -o -name «*-[023]?.*» $ -ctime +61 -delete
pg_dump -U $dbUser $database | gzip > $pathB/pgsql_$(date «+%Y-%m-%d»).sql.gz

* где password — пароль для подключения к postgresql; /backup — каталог, в котором будут храниться резервные копии; dbuser — имя учетной записи для подключения к БУБД; pathB — путь до каталога, где будут храниться резервные копии.
* данный скрипт сначала удалит все резервные копии, старше 61 дня, но оставит от 15-о числа как длительный архив. После при помощи утилиты pg_dump будет выполнено подключение и резервирование базы db. Пароль экспортируется в системную переменную на момент выполнения задачи.

Для запуска резервного копирования по расписанию, сохраняем скрипт в файл, например, /scripts/postgresql_dump.sh и создаем задание в планировщике:

3 0 * * * /scripts/postgresql_dump.sh

* наш скрипт будет запускаться каждый день в 03:00.

Вариант 2. Запуск от пользователя postgres; все базы.

find $pathB $ -name «*-1[^5].*» -o -name «*-[023]?.*» $ -ctime +61 -delete

* где /backup — каталог, в котором будут храниться резервные копии; pathB — путь до каталога, где будут храниться резервные копии.
* данный скрипт сначала удалит все резервные копии, старше 61 дня, но оставит от 15-о числа как длительный архив. После найдет все созданные в СУБД базы, кроме служебных и при помощи утилиты pg_dump будет выполнено резервирование каждой найденной базы. Пароль нам не нужен, так как по умолчанию, пользователь postgres имеет возможность подключаться к базе без пароля.

Необходимо убедиться, что у пользователя postgre будет разрешение на запись в каталог назначения, в нашем примере, /backup/postgres.

Зададим в качестве владельца файла, пользователя postgres:

chown postgres:postgres /scripts/postgresql_dump.sh

crontab -e -u postgres

* мы откроем на редактирование cron для пользователя postgres.

3 0 * * * /scripts/postgresql_dump.sh

* наш скрипт будет запускаться каждый день в 03:00.

Права и запуск

Разрешаем запуск скрипта, как исполняемого файла:

chmod +x /scripts/postgresql_dump.sh

Единоразово можно запустить задание на выполнение резервной копии:

. или от пользователя postgres:

su — postgres -c «/scripts/postgresql_dump.sh»

На удаленном сервере

Если сервер баз данных находится на другом сервере, просто добавляем опцию -h:

pg_dump -h 192.168.0.15 users > /tmp/users.dump

* необходимо убедиться, что сама СУБД разрешает удаленное подключение. Подробнее читайте инструкцию Как настроить удаленное подключение к PostgreSQL.

Дамп определенной таблицы

Запускается с опцией -t или —table= :

pg_dump -t students users > /tmp/students.dump

* где students — таблица; users — база данных.

Если наша таблица находится в определенной схеме, то она указывается вместе с ней, например:

pg_dump -t public.students users > /tmp/students.dump

* где public — схема; students — таблица; users — база данных.

Размещение каждой таблицы в отдельный файл

Также называется резервированием в каталог. Данный способ удобен при больших размерах базы или необходимости восстанавливать отдельные таблицы. Выполняется с ипользованием ключа -d:

pg_dump -d customers > /tmp/folder

* где /tmp/folder — путь до каталога, в котором разместяться файлы дампа для каждой таблицы.

Для определенной схемы

В нашей базе может быть несколько схем. Если мы хотим сделать дамп только для определенной схемы, то используем опцию -n, например:

pg_dump -n public peoples > /tmp/peoples.public.sql

* в данном примере мы заархивируем схему public базы данных peoples.

Только схемы (структуры)

Для резервного копирования без данных (только таблицы и их структуры):

pg_dump —schema-only users > /tmp/users.schema.dump

Также, внутри каждой базы могут быть свои схемы с данными. Если нам нужно сделать дамп именно той схемы, которая внутри базы, используем ключ -n:

pg_dump —schema-only users -n production > /tmp/users.schema_production.dump

* в данном примере мы создадим дамп структуры базы данных users только для схемы production.

Или полный дамп с данными для схемы внутри базы данных:

pg_dump users -n production > /tmp/users.production.dump

Только данные

pg_dump —data-only users > /tmp/users.data.dump

Использование pgAdmin

Данный метод хорошо подойдет для компьютеров с Windows и для быстрого создания резервных копий из графического интерфейса.

Запускаем pgAdmin — подключаемся к серверу — кликаем правой кнопкой мыши по базе, для которой хотим сделать дамп — выбираем Резервная копия:

В открывшемся окне выбираем путь для сохранения данных и настраиваемый формат:

При желании, можно изучить дополнительные параметры для резервного копирования:

После нажимаем Резервная копия — ждем окончания процесса и кликаем по Завершено.

Не текстовые форматы дампа

Другие форматы позволяют делать частичное восстановление, работать в несколько потоков и сжимать данные.

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