<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /><title>Chapter 25. Backup and Restore</title><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="stylesheet.css" /><link rev="made" href="pgsql-docs@lists.postgresql.org" /><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets Vsnapshot" /><link rel="prev" href="logfile-maintenance.html" title="24.3. Log File Maintenance" /><link rel="next" href="backup-dump.html" title="25.1. SQL Dump" /></head><body><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/transitional" class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="5" align="center">Chapter 25. Backup and Restore</th></tr><tr><td width="10%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="logfile-maintenance.html" title="24.3. Log File Maintenance">Prev</a> </td><td width="10%" align="left"><a accesskey="u" href="admin.html" title="Part III. Server Administration">Up</a></td><th width="60%" align="center">Part III. Server Administration</th><td width="10%" align="right"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html" title="PostgreSQL 11.5 Documentation">Home</a></td><td width="10%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="backup-dump.html" title="25.1. SQL Dump">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr></hr></div><div class="chapter" id="BACKUP"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title">Chapter 25. Backup and Restore</h2></div></div></div><div class="toc"><p><strong>Table of Contents</strong></p><dl class="toc"><dt><span class="sect1"><a href="backup-dump.html">25.1. <acronym class="acronym">SQL</acronym> Dump</a></span></dt><dd><dl><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="backup-dump.html#BACKUP-DUMP-RESTORE">25.1.1. Restoring the Dump</a></span></dt><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="backup-dump.html#BACKUP-DUMP-ALL">25.1.2. Using <span class="application">pg_dumpall</span></a></span></dt><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="backup-dump.html#BACKUP-DUMP-LARGE">25.1.3. Handling Large Databases</a></span></dt></dl></dd><dt><span class="sect1"><a href="backup-file.html">25.2. File System Level Backup</a></span></dt><dt><span class="sect1"><a href="continuous-archiving.html">25.3. Continuous Archiving and Point-in-Time Recovery (PITR)</a></span></dt><dd><dl><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="continuous-archiving.html#BACKUP-ARCHIVING-WAL">25.3.1. Setting Up WAL Archiving</a></span></dt><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="continuous-archiving.html#BACKUP-BASE-BACKUP">25.3.2. Making a Base Backup</a></span></dt><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="continuous-archiving.html#BACKUP-LOWLEVEL-BASE-BACKUP">25.3.3. Making a Base Backup Using the Low Level API</a></span></dt><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="continuous-archiving.html#BACKUP-PITR-RECOVERY">25.3.4. Recovering Using a Continuous Archive Backup</a></span></dt><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="continuous-archiving.html#BACKUP-TIMELINES">25.3.5. Timelines</a></span></dt><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="continuous-archiving.html#BACKUP-TIPS">25.3.6. Tips and Examples</a></span></dt><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="continuous-archiving.html#CONTINUOUS-ARCHIVING-CAVEATS">25.3.7. Caveats</a></span></dt></dl></dd></dl></div><a id="id-1.6.12.2" class="indexterm"></a><p> As with everything that contains valuable data, <span class="productname">PostgreSQL</span> databases should be backed up regularly. While the procedure is essentially simple, it is important to have a clear understanding of the underlying techniques and assumptions. </p><p> There are three fundamentally different approaches to backing up <span class="productname">PostgreSQL</span> data: </p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; "><li class="listitem"><p><acronym class="acronym">SQL</acronym> dump</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>File system level backup</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>Continuous archiving</p></li></ul></div><p> Each has its own strengths and weaknesses; each is discussed in turn in the following sections. </p></div><div class="navfooter"><hr /><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="logfile-maintenance.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="admin.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="backup-dump.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">24.3. Log File Maintenance </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> 25.1. <acronym class="acronym">SQL</acronym> Dump</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
