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><DIV
CLASS="SECT1"
><H1
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
NAME="CONTINUOUS-ARCHIVING"
>24.3. Continuous Archiving and Point-In-Time Recovery (PITR)</A
></H1
><A
NAME="AEN28373"
></A
><A
NAME="AEN28375"
></A
><A
NAME="AEN28377"
></A
><P
> At all times, <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>PostgreSQL</SPAN
> maintains a
<I
CLASS="FIRSTTERM"
>write ahead log</I
> (WAL) in the <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>pg_xlog/</TT
>
subdirectory of the cluster's data directory. The log describes
every change made to the database's data files. This log exists
primarily for crash-safety purposes: if the system crashes, the
database can be restored to consistency by <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"replaying"</SPAN
> the
log entries made since the last checkpoint. However, the existence
of the log makes it possible to use a third strategy for backing up
databases: we can combine a file-system-level backup with backup of
the WAL files. If recovery is needed, we restore the backup and
then replay from the backed-up WAL files to bring the backup up to
current time. This approach is more complex to administer than
either of the previous approaches, but it has some significant
benefits:
<P
></P
></P><UL
><LI
><P
> We do not need a perfectly consistent backup as the starting point.
Any internal inconsistency in the backup will be corrected by log
replay (this is not significantly different from what happens during
crash recovery). So we don't need file system snapshot capability,
just <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>tar</SPAN
> or a similar archiving tool.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
> Since we can string together an indefinitely long sequence of WAL files
for replay, continuous backup can be achieved simply by continuing to archive
the WAL files. This is particularly valuable for large databases, where
it might not be convenient to take a full backup frequently.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
> There is nothing that says we have to replay the WAL entries all the
way to the end. We could stop the replay at any point and have a
consistent snapshot of the database as it was at that time. Thus,
this technique supports <I
CLASS="FIRSTTERM"
>point-in-time recovery</I
>: it is
possible to restore the database to its state at any time since your base
backup was taken.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
> If we continuously feed the series of WAL files to another
machine that has been loaded with the same base backup file, we
have a <I
CLASS="FIRSTTERM"
>warm standby</I
> system: at any point we can bring up
the second machine and it will have a nearly-current copy of the
database.
</P
></LI
></UL
><P>
</P
><P
> As with the plain file-system-backup technique, this method can only
support restoration of an entire database cluster, not a subset.
Also, it requires a lot of archival storage: the base backup might be bulky,
and a busy system will generate many megabytes of WAL traffic that
have to be archived. Still, it is the preferred backup technique in
many situations where high reliability is needed.
</P
><P
> To recover successfully using continuous archiving (also called
<SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"online backup"</SPAN
> by many database vendors), you need a continuous
sequence of archived WAL files that extends back at least as far as the
start time of your backup. So to get started, you should set up and test
your procedure for archiving WAL files <SPAN
CLASS="emphasis"
><I
CLASS="EMPHASIS"
>before</I
></SPAN
> you take your
first base backup. Accordingly, we first discuss the mechanics of
archiving WAL files.
</P
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H2
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="BACKUP-ARCHIVING-WAL"
>24.3.1. Setting up WAL archiving</A
></H2
><P
> In an abstract sense, a running <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>PostgreSQL</SPAN
> system
produces an indefinitely long sequence of WAL records. The system
physically divides this sequence into WAL <I
CLASS="FIRSTTERM"
>segment
files</I
>, which are normally 16MB apiece (although the segment size
can be altered when building <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>PostgreSQL</SPAN
>). The segment
files are given numeric names that reflect their position in the
abstract WAL sequence. When not using WAL archiving, the system
normally creates just a few segment files and then
<SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"recycles"</SPAN
> them by renaming no-longer-needed segment files
to higher segment numbers. It's assumed that a segment file whose
contents precede the checkpoint-before-last is no longer of
interest and can be recycled.
</P
><P
> When archiving WAL data, we need to capture the contents of each segment
file once it is filled, and save that data somewhere before the segment
file is recycled for reuse. Depending on the application and the
available hardware, there could be many different ways of <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"saving
the data somewhere"</SPAN
>: we could copy the segment files to an NFS-mounted
directory on another machine, write them onto a tape drive (ensuring that
you have a way of identifying the original name of each file), or batch
them together and burn them onto CDs, or something else entirely. To
provide the database administrator with as much flexibility as possible,
<SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>PostgreSQL</SPAN
> tries not to make any assumptions about how
the archiving will be done. Instead, <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>PostgreSQL</SPAN
> lets
the administrator specify a shell command to be executed to copy a
completed segment file to wherever it needs to go. The command could be
as simple as a <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>cp</TT
>, or it could invoke a complex shell
script — it's all up to you.
</P
><P
> To enable WAL archiving, set the <A
HREF="runtime-config-wal.html#GUC-ARCHIVE-MODE"
>archive_mode</A
> configuration parameter to <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>on</TT
>,
and specify the shell command to use in the <A
HREF="runtime-config-wal.html#GUC-ARCHIVE-COMMAND"
>archive_command</A
> configuration parameter. In practice
these settings will always be placed in the
<TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>postgresql.conf</TT
> file.
In <TT
CLASS="VARNAME"
>archive_command</TT
>,
any <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>%p</TT
> is replaced by the path name of the file to
archive, while any <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>%f</TT
> is replaced by the file name only.
(The path name is relative to the current working directory,
i.e., the cluster's data directory.)
Write <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>%%</TT
> if you need to embed an actual <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>%</TT
>
character in the command. The simplest useful command is something
like:
</P><PRE
CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING"
>archive_command = 'cp -i %p /mnt/server/archivedir/%f </dev/null'</PRE
><P>
which will copy archivable WAL segments to the directory
<TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>/mnt/server/archivedir</TT
>. (This is an example, not a
recommendation, and might not work on all platforms.) After the
<TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>%p</TT
> and <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>%f</TT
> parameters have been replaced,
the actual command executed might look like this:
</P><PRE
CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING"
>cp -i pg_xlog/00000001000000A900000065 /mnt/server/archivedir/00000001000000A900000065 </dev/null</PRE
><P>
A similar command will be generated for each new file to be archived.
</P
><P
> The archive command will be executed under the ownership of the same
user that the <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>PostgreSQL</SPAN
> server is running as. Since
the series of WAL files being archived contains effectively everything
in your database, you will want to be sure that the archived data is
protected from prying eyes; for example, archive into a directory that
does not have group or world read access.
</P
><P
> It is important that the archive command return zero exit status if and
only if it succeeded. Upon getting a zero result,
<SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>PostgreSQL</SPAN
> will assume that the WAL segment file has been
successfully archived, and will remove or recycle it.
However, a nonzero status tells
<SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>PostgreSQL</SPAN
> that the file was not archived; it will try
again periodically until it succeeds.
</P
><P
> The archive command should generally be designed to refuse to overwrite
any pre-existing archive file. This is an important safety feature to
preserve the integrity of your archive in case of administrator error
(such as sending the output of two different servers to the same archive
directory).
It is advisable to test your proposed archive command to ensure that it
indeed does not overwrite an existing file, <SPAN
CLASS="emphasis"
><I
CLASS="EMPHASIS"
>and that it returns
nonzero status in this case</I
></SPAN
>. We have found that <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>cp -i</TT
> does
this correctly on some platforms but not others. If the chosen command
does not itself handle this case correctly, you should add a command
to test for pre-existence of the archive file. For example, something
like:
</P><PRE
CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING"
>archive_command = 'test ! -f .../%f && cp %p .../%f'</PRE
><P>
works correctly on most Unix variants.
</P
><P
> While designing your archiving setup, consider what will happen if
the archive command fails repeatedly because some aspect requires
operator intervention or the archive runs out of space. For example, this
could occur if you write to tape without an autochanger; when the tape
fills, nothing further can be archived until the tape is swapped.
You should ensure that any error condition or request to a human operator
is reported appropriately so that the situation can be
resolved reasonably quickly. The <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>pg_xlog/</TT
> directory will
continue to fill with WAL segment files until the situation is resolved.
(If the filesystem containing <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>pg_xlog/</TT
> fills up,
<SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>PostgreSQL</SPAN
> will do a PANIC shutdown. No prior
transactions will be lost, but the database will be unavailable until
you free some space.)
</P
><P
> The speed of the archiving command is not important, so long as it can keep up
with the average rate at which your server generates WAL data. Normal
operation continues even if the archiving process falls a little behind.
If archiving falls significantly behind, this will increase the amount of
data that would be lost in the event of a disaster. It will also mean that
the <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>pg_xlog/</TT
> directory will contain large numbers of
not-yet-archived segment files, which could eventually exceed available
disk space. You are advised to monitor the archiving process to ensure that
it is working as you intend.
</P
><P
> In writing your archive command, you should assume that the file names to
be archived can be up to 64 characters long and can contain any
combination of ASCII letters, digits, and dots. It is not necessary to
remember the original relative path (<TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>%p</TT
>) but it is necessary to
remember the file name (<TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>%f</TT
>).
</P
><P
> Note that although WAL archiving will allow you to restore any
modifications made to the data in your <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>PostgreSQL</SPAN
> database,
it will not restore changes made to configuration files (that is,
<TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>postgresql.conf</TT
>, <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>pg_hba.conf</TT
> and
<TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>pg_ident.conf</TT
>), since those are edited manually rather
than through SQL operations.
You might wish to keep the configuration files in a location that will
be backed up by your regular file system backup procedures. See
<A
HREF="runtime-config-file-locations.html"
>Section 18.2</A
> for how to relocate the
configuration files.
</P
><P
> The archive command is only invoked on completed WAL segments. Hence,
if your server generates only little WAL traffic (or has slack periods
where it does so), there could be a long delay between the completion
of a transaction and its safe recording in archive storage. To put
a limit on how old unarchived data can be, you can set
<A
HREF="runtime-config-wal.html#GUC-ARCHIVE-TIMEOUT"
>archive_timeout</A
> to force the server to switch
to a new WAL segment file at least that often. Note that archived
files that are ended early due to a forced switch are still the same
length as completely full files. It is therefore unwise to set a very
short <TT
CLASS="VARNAME"
>archive_timeout</TT
> — it will bloat your archive
storage. <TT
CLASS="VARNAME"
>archive_timeout</TT
> settings of a minute or so are
usually reasonable.
</P
><P
> Also, you can force a segment switch manually with
<CODE
CLASS="FUNCTION"
>pg_switch_xlog</CODE
>, if you want to ensure that a
just-finished transaction is archived as soon as possible. Other utility
functions related to WAL management are listed in <A
HREF="functions-admin.html#FUNCTIONS-ADMIN-BACKUP-TABLE"
>Table 9-53</A
>.
</P
><P
> When <TT
CLASS="VARNAME"
>archive_mode</TT
> is <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>off</TT
> some SQL commands
are optimized to avoid WAL logging, as described in <A
HREF="populate.html#POPULATE-PITR"
>Section 14.4.7</A
>. If archiving were turned on during execution
of one of these statements, WAL would not contain enough information
for archive recovery. (Crash recovery is unaffected.) For
this reason, <TT
CLASS="VARNAME"
>archive_mode</TT
> can only be changed at server
start. However, <TT
CLASS="VARNAME"
>archive_command</TT
> can be changed with a
configuration file reload. If you wish to temporarily stop archiving,
one way to do it is to set <TT
CLASS="VARNAME"
>archive_command</TT
> to the empty
string (<TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>''</TT
>).
This will cause WAL files to accumulate in <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>pg_xlog/</TT
> until a
working <TT
CLASS="VARNAME"
>archive_command</TT
> is re-established.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H2
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="BACKUP-BASE-BACKUP"
>24.3.2. Making a Base Backup</A
></H2
><P
> The procedure for making a base backup is relatively simple:
<P
></P
></P><OL
TYPE="1"
><LI
><P
> Ensure that WAL archiving is enabled and working.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
> Connect to the database as a superuser, and issue the command:
</P><PRE
CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING"
>SELECT pg_start_backup('label');</PRE
><P>
where <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>label</TT
> is any string you want to use to uniquely
identify this backup operation. (One good practice is to use the
full path where you intend to put the backup dump file.)
<CODE
CLASS="FUNCTION"
>pg_start_backup</CODE
> creates a <I
CLASS="FIRSTTERM"
>backup label</I
> file,
called <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>backup_label</TT
>, in the cluster directory with
information about your backup.
</P
><P
> It does not matter which database within the cluster you connect to to
issue this command. You can ignore the result returned by the function;
but if it reports an error, deal with that before proceeding.
</P
><P
> <CODE
CLASS="FUNCTION"
>pg_start_backup</CODE
> can take a long time to finish.
This is because it performs a checkpoint, and the I/O
required for a checkpoint will be spread out over a significant
period of time, by default half your inter-checkpoint interval
(see the configuration parameter
<A
HREF="runtime-config-wal.html#GUC-CHECKPOINT-COMPLETION-TARGET"
>checkpoint_completion_target</A
>). Usually
this is what you want because it minimizes the impact on query
processing. If you just want to start the backup as soon as
possible, execute a <TT
CLASS="COMMAND"
>CHECKPOINT</TT
> command
(which performs a checkpoint as quickly as possible) and then
immediately execute <CODE
CLASS="FUNCTION"
>pg_start_backup</CODE
>. Then there
will be very little for <CODE
CLASS="FUNCTION"
>pg_start_backup</CODE
>'s checkpoint
to do, and it won't take long.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
> Perform the backup, using any convenient file-system-backup tool
such as <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>tar</SPAN
> or <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>cpio</SPAN
>. It is neither
necessary nor desirable to stop normal operation of the database
while you do this.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
> Again connect to the database as a superuser, and issue the command:
</P><PRE
CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING"
>SELECT pg_stop_backup();</PRE
><P>
This terminates the backup mode and performs an automatic switch to
the next WAL segment. The reason for the switch is to arrange that
the last WAL segment file written during the backup interval is
immediately ready to archive.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
> Once the WAL segment files used during the backup are archived, you are
done. The file identified by <CODE
CLASS="FUNCTION"
>pg_stop_backup</CODE
>'s result is
the last segment that needs to be archived to complete the backup.
Archival of these files will happen automatically, since you have
already configured <TT
CLASS="VARNAME"
>archive_command</TT
>. In many cases, this
happens fairly quickly, but you are advised to monitor your archival
system to ensure this has taken place so that you can be certain you
have a complete backup.
</P
></LI
></OL
><P>
</P
><P
> Some backup tools that you might wish to use emit warnings or errors
if the files they are trying to copy change while the copy proceeds.
This situation is normal, and not an error, when taking a base backup
of an active database; so you need to ensure that you can distinguish
complaints of this sort from real errors. For example, some versions
of <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>rsync</SPAN
> return a separate exit code for
<SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"vanished source files"</SPAN
>, and you can write a driver script to
accept this exit code as a non-error case. Also, some versions of
GNU <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>tar</SPAN
> return an error code indistinguishable from
a fatal error if a file was truncated while <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>tar</SPAN
> was
copying it. Fortunately, GNU <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>tar</SPAN
> versions 1.16 and
later exit with <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>1</TT
> if a file was changed during the backup,
and <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>2</TT
> for other errors.
</P
><P
> It is not necessary to be very concerned about the amount of time elapsed
between <CODE
CLASS="FUNCTION"
>pg_start_backup</CODE
> and the start of the actual backup,
nor between the end of the backup and <CODE
CLASS="FUNCTION"
>pg_stop_backup</CODE
>; a
few minutes' delay won't hurt anything. (However, if you normally run the
server with <TT
CLASS="VARNAME"
>full_page_writes</TT
> disabled, you might notice a drop
in performance between <CODE
CLASS="FUNCTION"
>pg_start_backup</CODE
> and
<CODE
CLASS="FUNCTION"
>pg_stop_backup</CODE
>, since <TT
CLASS="VARNAME"
>full_page_writes</TT
> is
effectively forced on during backup mode.) You must ensure that these
steps are carried out in sequence without any possible
overlap, or you will invalidate the backup.
</P
><P
> Be certain that your backup dump includes all of the files underneath
the database cluster directory (e.g., <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>/usr/local/pgsql/data</TT
>).
If you are using tablespaces that do not reside underneath this directory,
be careful to include them as well (and be sure that your backup dump
archives symbolic links as links, otherwise the restore will mess up
your tablespaces).
</P
><P
> You can, however, omit from the backup dump the files within the
<TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>pg_xlog/</TT
> subdirectory of the cluster directory. This
slight complication is worthwhile because it reduces the risk
of mistakes when restoring. This is easy to arrange if
<TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>pg_xlog/</TT
> is a symbolic link pointing to someplace outside
the cluster directory, which is a common setup anyway for performance
reasons.
</P
><P
> To make use of the backup, you will need to keep around all the WAL
segment files generated during and after the file system backup.
To aid you in doing this, the <CODE
CLASS="FUNCTION"
>pg_stop_backup</CODE
> function
creates a <I
CLASS="FIRSTTERM"
>backup history file</I
> that is immediately
stored into the WAL archive area. This file is named after the first
WAL segment file that you need to have to make use of the backup.
For example, if the starting WAL file is
<TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>0000000100001234000055CD</TT
> the backup history file will be
named something like
<TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>0000000100001234000055CD.007C9330.backup</TT
>. (The second
part of the file name stands for an exact position within the WAL
file, and can ordinarily be ignored.) Once you have safely archived
the file system backup and the WAL segment files used during the
backup (as specified in the backup history file), all archived WAL
segments with names numerically less are no longer needed to recover
the file system backup and can be deleted. However, you should
consider keeping several backup sets to be absolutely certain that
you can recover your data.
</P
><P
> The backup history file is just a small text file. It contains the
label string you gave to <CODE
CLASS="FUNCTION"
>pg_start_backup</CODE
>, as well as
the starting and ending times and WAL segments of the backup.
If you used the label to identify where the associated dump file is kept,
then the archived history file is enough to tell you which dump file to
restore, should you need to do so.
</P
><P
> Since you have to keep around all the archived WAL files back to your
last base backup, the interval between base backups should usually be
chosen based on how much storage you want to expend on archived WAL
files. You should also consider how long you are prepared to spend
recovering, if recovery should be necessary — the system will have to
replay all those WAL segments, and that could take awhile if it has
been a long time since the last base backup.
</P
><P
> It's also worth noting that the <CODE
CLASS="FUNCTION"
>pg_start_backup</CODE
> function
makes a file named <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>backup_label</TT
> in the database cluster
directory, which is then removed again by <CODE
CLASS="FUNCTION"
>pg_stop_backup</CODE
>.
This file will of course be archived as a part of your backup dump file.
The backup label file includes the label string you gave to
<CODE
CLASS="FUNCTION"
>pg_start_backup</CODE
>, as well as the time at which
<CODE
CLASS="FUNCTION"
>pg_start_backup</CODE
> was run, and the name of the starting WAL
file. In case of confusion it will
therefore be possible to look inside a backup dump file and determine
exactly which backup session the dump file came from.
</P
><P
> It is also possible to make a backup dump while the server is
stopped. In this case, you obviously cannot use
<CODE
CLASS="FUNCTION"
>pg_start_backup</CODE
> or <CODE
CLASS="FUNCTION"
>pg_stop_backup</CODE
>, and
you will therefore be left to your own devices to keep track of which
backup dump is which and how far back the associated WAL files go.
It is generally better to follow the continuous archiving procedure above.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H2
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="BACKUP-PITR-RECOVERY"
>24.3.3. Recovering using a Continuous Archive Backup</A
></H2
><P
> Okay, the worst has happened and you need to recover from your backup.
Here is the procedure:
<P
></P
></P><OL
TYPE="1"
><LI
><P
> Stop the server, if it's running.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
> If you have the space to do so,
copy the whole cluster data directory and any tablespaces to a temporary
location in case you need them later. Note that this precaution will
require that you have enough free space on your system to hold two
copies of your existing database. If you do not have enough space,
you need at the least to copy the contents of the <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>pg_xlog</TT
>
subdirectory of the cluster data directory, as it might contain logs which
were not archived before the system went down.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
> Clean out all existing files and subdirectories under the cluster data
directory and under the root directories of any tablespaces you are using.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
> Restore the database files from your backup dump. Be careful that they
are restored with the right ownership (the database system user, not
<TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>root</TT
>!) and with the right permissions. If you are using
tablespaces,
you should verify that the symbolic links in <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>pg_tblspc/</TT
>
were correctly restored.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
> Remove any files present in <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>pg_xlog/</TT
>; these came from the
backup dump and are therefore probably obsolete rather than current.
If you didn't archive <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>pg_xlog/</TT
> at all, then recreate it,
being careful to ensure that you re-establish it as a symbolic link
if you had it set up that way before.
Be sure to recreate the subdirectory
<TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>pg_xlog/archive_status/</TT
> as well.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
> If you had unarchived WAL segment files that you saved in step 2,
copy them into <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>pg_xlog/</TT
>. (It is best to copy them,
not move them, so that you still have the unmodified files if a
problem occurs and you have to start over.)
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
> Create a recovery command file <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>recovery.conf</TT
> in the cluster
data directory (see <A
HREF="continuous-archiving.html#RECOVERY-CONFIG-SETTINGS"
>Recovery Settings</A
>). You might
also want to temporarily modify <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>pg_hba.conf</TT
> to prevent
ordinary users from connecting until you are sure the recovery has worked.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
> Start the server. The server will go into recovery mode and
proceed to read through the archived WAL files it needs. Should the
recovery be terminated because of an external error, the server can
simply be restarted and it will continue recovery. Upon completion
of the recovery process, the server will rename
<TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>recovery.conf</TT
> to <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>recovery.done</TT
> (to prevent
accidentally re-entering recovery mode in case of a crash later) and then
commence normal database operations.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
> Inspect the contents of the database to ensure you have recovered to
where you want to be. If not, return to step 1. If all is well,
let in your users by restoring <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>pg_hba.conf</TT
> to normal.
</P
></LI
></OL
><P>
</P
><P
> The key part of all this is to set up a recovery command file that
describes how you want to recover and how far the recovery should
run. You can use <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>recovery.conf.sample</TT
> (normally
installed in the installation <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>share/</TT
> directory) as a
prototype. The one thing that you absolutely must specify in
<TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>recovery.conf</TT
> is the <TT
CLASS="VARNAME"
>restore_command</TT
>,
which tells <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>PostgreSQL</SPAN
> how to get back archived
WAL file segments. Like the <TT
CLASS="VARNAME"
>archive_command</TT
>, this is
a shell command string. It can contain <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>%f</TT
>, which is
replaced by the name of the desired log file, and <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>%p</TT
>,
which is replaced by the path name to copy the log file to.
(The path name is relative to the current working directory,
i.e., the cluster's data directory.)
Write <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>%%</TT
> if you need to embed an actual <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>%</TT
>
character in the command. The simplest useful command is
something like:
</P><PRE
CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING"
>restore_command = 'cp /mnt/server/archivedir/%f %p'</PRE
><P>
which will copy previously archived WAL segments from the directory
<TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>/mnt/server/archivedir</TT
>. You could of course use something
much more complicated, perhaps even a shell script that requests the
operator to mount an appropriate tape.
</P
><P
> It is important that the command return nonzero exit status on failure.
The command <SPAN
CLASS="emphasis"
><I
CLASS="EMPHASIS"
>will</I
></SPAN
> be asked for log files that are not present
in the archive; it must return nonzero when so asked. This is not an
error condition. Be aware also that the base name of the <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>%p</TT
>
path will be different from <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>%f</TT
>; do not expect them to be
interchangeable.
</P
><P
> WAL segments that cannot be found in the archive will be sought in
<TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>pg_xlog/</TT
>; this allows use of recent un-archived segments.
However segments that are available from the archive will be used in
preference to files in <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>pg_xlog/</TT
>. The system will not
overwrite the existing contents of <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>pg_xlog/</TT
> when retrieving
archived files.
</P
><P
> Normally, recovery will proceed through all available WAL segments,
thereby restoring the database to the current point in time (or as
close as we can get given the available WAL segments). So a normal
recovery will end with a <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"file not found"</SPAN
> message, the exact text
of the error message depending upon your choice of
<TT
CLASS="VARNAME"
>restore_command</TT
>. You may also see an error message
at the start of recovery for a file named something like
<TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>00000001.history</TT
>. This is also normal and does not
indicate a problem in simple recovery situations. See
<A
HREF="continuous-archiving.html#BACKUP-TIMELINES"
>Section 24.3.4</A
> for discussion.
</P
><P
> If you want to recover to some previous point in time (say, right before
the junior DBA dropped your main transaction table), just specify the
required stopping point in <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>recovery.conf</TT
>. You can specify
the stop point, known as the <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"recovery target"</SPAN
>, either by
date/time or by completion of a specific transaction ID. As of this
writing only the date/time option is very usable, since there are no tools
to help you identify with any accuracy which transaction ID to use.
</P
><DIV
CLASS="NOTE"
><BLOCKQUOTE
CLASS="NOTE"
><P
><B
>Note: </B
> The stop point must be after the ending time of the base backup, i.e.,
the time of <CODE
CLASS="FUNCTION"
>pg_stop_backup</CODE
>. You cannot use a base backup
to recover to a time when that backup was still going on. (To
recover to such a time, you must go back to your previous base backup
and roll forward from there.)
</P
></BLOCKQUOTE
></DIV
><P
> If recovery finds a corruption in the WAL data then recovery will
complete at that point and the server will not start. In such a case the
recovery process could be re-run from the beginning, specifying a
<SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"recovery target"</SPAN
> before the point of corruption so that recovery
can complete normally.
If recovery fails for an external reason, such as a system crash or
if the WAL archive has become inaccessible, then the recovery can simply
be restarted and it will restart almost from where it failed.
Recovery restart works much like checkpointing in normal operation:
the server periodically forces all its state to disk, and then updates
the <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>pg_control</TT
> file to indicate that the already-processed
WAL data need not be scanned again.
</P
><DIV
CLASS="SECT3"
><H3
CLASS="SECT3"
><A
NAME="RECOVERY-CONFIG-SETTINGS"
>24.3.3.1. Recovery Settings</A
></H3
><P
> These settings can only be made in the <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>recovery.conf</TT
>
file, and apply only for the duration of the recovery. They must be
reset for any subsequent recovery you wish to perform. They cannot be
changed once recovery has begun.
</P
><P
></P
><DIV
CLASS="VARIABLELIST"
><DL
><DT
><A
NAME="RESTORE-COMMAND"
></A
><TT
CLASS="VARNAME"
>restore_command</TT
> (<TT
CLASS="TYPE"
>string</TT
>)</DT
><DD
><P
> The shell command to execute to retrieve an archived segment of
the WAL file series. This parameter is required.
Any <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>%f</TT
> in the string is
replaced by the name of the file to retrieve from the archive,
and any <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>%p</TT
> is replaced by the path name to copy
it to on the server.
(The path name is relative to the current working directory,
i.e., the cluster's data directory.)
Any <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>%r</TT
> is replaced by the name of the file containing the
last valid restart point. That is the earliest file that must be kept
to allow a restore to be restartable, so this information can be used
to truncate the archive to just the minimum required to support
restart of the current restore. <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>%r</TT
> would only be used in a
warm-standby configuration (see <A
HREF="warm-standby.html"
>Section 24.4</A
>).
Write <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>%%</TT
> to embed an actual <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>%</TT
> character
in the command.
</P
><P
> It is important for the command to return a zero exit status if and
only if it succeeds. The command <SPAN
CLASS="emphasis"
><I
CLASS="EMPHASIS"
>will</I
></SPAN
> be asked for file
names that are not present in the archive; it must return nonzero
when so asked. Examples:
</P><PRE
CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING"
>restore_command = 'cp /mnt/server/archivedir/%f "%p"'
restore_command = 'copy "C:\\server\\archivedir\\%f" "%p"' # Windows</PRE
><P>
</P
></DD
><DT
><A
NAME="RECOVERY-TARGET-TIME"
></A
><TT
CLASS="VARNAME"
>recovery_target_time</TT
>
(<TT
CLASS="TYPE"
>timestamp</TT
>)</DT
><DD
><P
> This parameter specifies the time stamp up to which recovery
will proceed.
At most one of <TT
CLASS="VARNAME"
>recovery_target_time</TT
> and
<A
HREF="continuous-archiving.html#RECOVERY-TARGET-XID"
>recovery_target_xid</A
> can be specified.
The default is to recover to the end of the WAL log.
The precise stopping point is also influenced by
<A
HREF="continuous-archiving.html#RECOVERY-TARGET-INCLUSIVE"
>recovery_target_inclusive</A
>.
</P
></DD
><DT
><A
NAME="RECOVERY-TARGET-XID"
></A
><TT
CLASS="VARNAME"
>recovery_target_xid</TT
> (<TT
CLASS="TYPE"
>string</TT
>)</DT
><DD
><P
> This parameter specifies the transaction ID up to which recovery
will proceed. Keep in mind
that while transaction IDs are assigned sequentially at transaction
start, transactions can complete in a different numeric order.
The transactions that will be recovered are those that committed
before (and optionally including) the specified one.
At most one of <TT
CLASS="VARNAME"
>recovery_target_xid</TT
> and
<A
HREF="continuous-archiving.html#RECOVERY-TARGET-TIME"
>recovery_target_time</A
> can be specified.
The default is to recover to the end of the WAL log.
The precise stopping point is also influenced by
<A
HREF="continuous-archiving.html#RECOVERY-TARGET-INCLUSIVE"
>recovery_target_inclusive</A
>.
</P
></DD
><DT
><A
NAME="RECOVERY-TARGET-INCLUSIVE"
></A
><TT
CLASS="VARNAME"
>recovery_target_inclusive</TT
>
(<TT
CLASS="TYPE"
>boolean</TT
>)</DT
><DD
><P
> Specifies whether we stop just after the specified recovery target
(<TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>true</TT
>), or just before the recovery target
(<TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>false</TT
>).
Applies to both <A
HREF="continuous-archiving.html#RECOVERY-TARGET-TIME"
>recovery_target_time</A
>
and <A
HREF="continuous-archiving.html#RECOVERY-TARGET-XID"
>recovery_target_xid</A
>, whichever one is
specified for this recovery. This indicates whether transactions
having exactly the target commit time or ID, respectively, will
be included in the recovery. Default is <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>true</TT
>.
</P
></DD
><DT
><A
NAME="RECOVERY-TARGET-TIMELINE"
></A
><TT
CLASS="VARNAME"
>recovery_target_timeline</TT
>
(<TT
CLASS="TYPE"
>string</TT
>)</DT
><DD
><P
> Specifies recovering into a particular timeline. The default is
to recover along the same timeline that was current when the
base backup was taken. You would only need to set this parameter
in complex re-recovery situations, where you need to return to
a state that itself was reached after a point-in-time recovery.
See <A
HREF="continuous-archiving.html#BACKUP-TIMELINES"
>Section 24.3.4</A
> for discussion.
</P
></DD
><DT
><A
NAME="LOG-RESTARTPOINTS"
></A
><TT
CLASS="VARNAME"
>log_restartpoints</TT
>
(<TT
CLASS="TYPE"
>boolean</TT
>)</DT
><DD
><P
> Specifies whether to log each restart point as it occurs. This
can be helpful to track the progress of a long recovery.
Default is <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>false</TT
>.
</P
></DD
></DL
></DIV
></DIV
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H2
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="BACKUP-TIMELINES"
>24.3.4. Timelines</A
></H2
><A
NAME="AEN28672"
></A
><P
> The ability to restore the database to a previous point in time creates
some complexities that are akin to science-fiction stories about time
travel and parallel universes. In the original history of the database,
perhaps you dropped a critical table at 5:15PM on Tuesday evening, but
didn't realize your mistake until Wednesday noon.
Unfazed, you get out your backup, restore to the point-in-time 5:14PM
Tuesday evening, and are up and running. In <SPAN
CLASS="emphasis"
><I
CLASS="EMPHASIS"
>this</I
></SPAN
> history of
the database universe, you never dropped the table at all. But suppose
you later realize this wasn't such a great idea after all, and would like
to return to sometime Wednesday morning in the original history.
You won't be able
to if, while your database was up-and-running, it overwrote some of the
sequence of WAL segment files that led up to the time you now wish you
could get back to. So you really want to distinguish the series of
WAL records generated after you've done a point-in-time recovery from
those that were generated in the original database history.
</P
><P
> To deal with these problems, <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>PostgreSQL</SPAN
> has a notion
of <I
CLASS="FIRSTTERM"
>timelines</I
>. Whenever an archive recovery is completed,
a new timeline is created to identify the series of WAL records
generated after that recovery. The timeline
ID number is part of WAL segment file names, and so a new timeline does
not overwrite the WAL data generated by previous timelines. It is
in fact possible to archive many different timelines. While that might
seem like a useless feature, it's often a lifesaver. Consider the
situation where you aren't quite sure what point-in-time to recover to,
and so have to do several point-in-time recoveries by trial and error
until you find the best place to branch off from the old history. Without
timelines this process would soon generate an unmanageable mess. With
timelines, you can recover to <SPAN
CLASS="emphasis"
><I
CLASS="EMPHASIS"
>any</I
></SPAN
> prior state, including
states in timeline branches that you later abandoned.
</P
><P
> Each time a new timeline is created, <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>PostgreSQL</SPAN
> creates
a <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"timeline history"</SPAN
> file that shows which timeline it branched
off from and when. These history files are necessary to allow the system
to pick the right WAL segment files when recovering from an archive that
contains multiple timelines. Therefore, they are archived into the WAL
archive area just like WAL segment files. The history files are just
small text files, so it's cheap and appropriate to keep them around
indefinitely (unlike the segment files which are large). You can, if
you like, add comments to a history file to make your own notes about
how and why this particular timeline came to be. Such comments will be
especially valuable when you have a thicket of different timelines as
a result of experimentation.
</P
><P
> The default behavior of recovery is to recover along the same timeline
that was current when the base backup was taken. If you want to recover
into some child timeline (that is, you want to return to some state that
was itself generated after a recovery attempt), you need to specify the
target timeline ID in <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>recovery.conf</TT
>. You cannot recover into
timelines that branched off earlier than the base backup.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H2
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="BACKUP-TIPS"
>24.3.5. Tips and Examples</A
></H2
><P
> Some tips for configuring continuous archiving are given here.
</P
><DIV
CLASS="SECT3"
><H3
CLASS="SECT3"
><A
NAME="BACKUP-STANDALONE"
>24.3.5.1. Standalone hot backups</A
></H3
><P
> It is possible to use <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>PostgreSQL</SPAN
>'s backup facilities to
produce standalone hot backups. These are backups that cannot be used
for point-in-time recovery, yet are typically much faster to backup and
restore than <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>pg_dump</SPAN
> dumps. (They are also much larger
than <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>pg_dump</SPAN
> dumps, so in some cases the speed advantage
could be negated.)
</P
><P
> To prepare for standalone hot backups, set <TT
CLASS="VARNAME"
>archive_mode</TT
> to
<TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>on</TT
>, and set up an <TT
CLASS="VARNAME"
>archive_command</TT
> that performs
archiving only when a <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"switch file"</SPAN
> exists. For example:
</P><PRE
CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING"
>archive_command = 'test ! -f /var/lib/pgsql/backup_in_progress || cp -i %p /var/lib/pgsql/archive/%f < /dev/null'</PRE
><P>
This command will perform archiving when
<TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>/var/lib/pgsql/backup_in_progress</TT
> exists, and otherwise
silently return zero exit status (allowing <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>PostgreSQL</SPAN
>
to recycle the unwanted WAL file).
</P
><P
> With this preparation, a backup can be taken using a script like the
following:
</P><PRE
CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING"
>touch /var/lib/pgsql/backup_in_progress
psql -c "select pg_start_backup('hot_backup');"
tar -cf /var/lib/pgsql/backup.tar /var/lib/pgsql/data/
psql -c "select pg_stop_backup();"
sleep 20
rm /var/lib/pgsql/backup_in_progress
tar -rf /var/lib/pgsql/backup.tar /var/lib/pgsql/archive/</PRE
><P>
The switch file <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>/var/lib/pgsql/backup_in_progress</TT
> is
created first, enabling archiving of completed WAL files to occur.
After the backup the switch file is removed. Archived WAL files are
then added to the backup so that both base backup and all required
WAL files are part of the same <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>tar</SPAN
> file.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT3"
><H3
CLASS="SECT3"
><A
NAME="BACKUP-SCRIPTS"
>24.3.5.2. <TT
CLASS="VARNAME"
>archive_command</TT
> scripts</A
></H3
><P
> Many people choose to use scripts to define their
<TT
CLASS="VARNAME"
>archive_command</TT
>, so that their
<TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>postgresql.conf</TT
> entry looks very simple:
</P><PRE
CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING"
>archive_command = 'local_backup_script.sh'</PRE
><P>
Using a separate script file is advisable any time you want to use
more than a single command in the archiving process.
This allows all complexity to be managed within the script, which
can be written in a popular scripting language such as
<SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>bash</SPAN
> or <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>perl</SPAN
>.
Any messages written to <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>stderr</TT
> from the script will appear
in the database server log, allowing complex configurations to be
diagnosed easily if they fail.
</P
><P
> Examples of requirements that might be solved within a script include:
<P
></P
></P><UL
><LI
><P
> Copying data to secure off-site data storage
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
> Batching WAL files so that they are transferred every three hours,
rather than one at a time
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
> Interfacing with other backup and recovery software
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
> Interfacing with monitoring software to report errors
</P
></LI
></UL
><P>
</P
></DIV
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H2
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="CONTINUOUS-ARCHIVING-CAVEATS"
>24.3.6. Caveats</A
></H2
><P
> At this writing, there are several limitations of the continuous archiving
technique. These will probably be fixed in future releases:
<P
></P
></P><UL
><LI
><P
> Operations on hash indexes are not presently WAL-logged, so
replay will not update these indexes. The recommended workaround
is to manually <A
HREF="sql-reindex.html"
><I
>REINDEX</I
></A
>
each such index after completing a recovery operation.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
> If a <A
HREF="sql-createdatabase.html"
><I
>CREATE DATABASE</I
></A
>
command is executed while a base backup is being taken, and then
the template database that the <TT
CLASS="COMMAND"
>CREATE DATABASE</TT
> copied
is modified while the base backup is still in progress, it is
possible that recovery will cause those modifications to be
propagated into the created database as well. This is of course
undesirable. To avoid this risk, it is best not to modify any
template databases while taking a base backup.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
> <A
HREF="sql-createtablespace.html"
><I
>CREATE TABLESPACE</I
></A
>
commands are WAL-logged with the literal absolute path, and will
therefore be replayed as tablespace creations with the same
absolute path. This might be undesirable if the log is being
replayed on a different machine. It can be dangerous even if the
log is being replayed on the same machine, but into a new data
directory: the replay will still overwrite the contents of the
original tablespace. To avoid potential gotchas of this sort,
the best practice is to take a new base backup after creating or
dropping tablespaces.
</P
></LI
></UL
><P>
</P
><P
> It should also be noted that the default <ACRONYM
CLASS="ACRONYM"
>WAL</ACRONYM
>
format is fairly bulky since it includes many disk page snapshots.
These page snapshots are designed to support crash recovery, since
we might need to fix partially-written disk pages. Depending on
your system hardware and software, the risk of partial writes might
be small enough to ignore, in which case you can significantly
reduce the total volume of archived logs by turning off page
snapshots using the <A
HREF="runtime-config-wal.html#GUC-FULL-PAGE-WRITES"
>full_page_writes</A
>
parameter. (Read the notes and warnings in <A
HREF="wal.html"
>Chapter 28</A
>
before you do so.) Turning off page snapshots does not prevent
use of the logs for PITR operations. An area for future
development is to compress archived WAL data by removing
unnecessary page copies even when <TT
CLASS="VARNAME"
>full_page_writes</TT
> is
on. In the meantime, administrators might wish to reduce the number
of page snapshots included in WAL by increasing the checkpoint
interval parameters as much as feasible.
</P
></DIV
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distrib
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x86_64
>
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>
by-pkgid
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