Postgresql – Incremental backup in postgresql in windows

Seeing that the recovery model is set to simple and msdn states that the simple recovery model does not support point-in-time recovery - Does this mean that I won't be able to use my transaction log backups to restore the database in a disaster to an hour before it happened?

Even taking a transaction log backup is not supported for databases using the SIMPLE recovery model. This is a restriction of the database engine based on how this recovery model works, and the recovery features it doesn't support, as you mentioned.

A transaction log backup maintenance plan task automatically skips databases in SIMPLE recovery to avoid causing errors.

Which backup should be done first, the database backup or the transaction log backups? Articles that I'm busy reading say I should do the database backup first and then the transaction log backup else I will get maintenance plan errors, but I'm currently first backing up my transaction logs and then data databases and I'm not getting any errors.

For the reasons I mentioned above, it won't matter for databases using SIMPLE recovery, as they will be skipped by the transaction log backup task.

For databases in the other two recovery models, a full backup must exist before you start taking transaction log backups (just the first time), or you will get an error -- this is probably what the articles refer to.

Point-in-time recovery ability is normally driven by business need -- in other words, you determine how critical the data is and how much you can afford to lose, then set the appropriate recovery model to meet those needs, and finally create a backup solution.

Even though SIMPLE recovery does not support point-in-time recovery, if an hour of data loss is okay, perhaps a differential backup solution could work for you. (There are far too many variables that go into developing this kind of solution to give you a complete picture with what was provided in the question.)

It would make more sense in my opinion to do a backup by table instead of by database. Here is a script I use to make backups of databases that contain MyISAM and InnoDB tables.

#!/bin/bash
USER="some_user"
PASSWD="some_password"
STAMP=$(date +"%d-%m-%y-%H:%M:%S")
HOST="some_host"
db="some_database"
FILESTAMP=$(date +"%d%m%y")
FILE="/some_directory/some_file-$STAMP.sql.gz"
Port=3306

TABLE_DUMP=$(mysql -u $USER -P$PASSWD -h $HOST -Bse "SELECT table_name FROM information_schema.tables where table_schema = '$db' and engine is not null order by table_type, table_name;")
for table_name in $TABLE_DUMP
do      
    table_engine=$(mysql -u $USER -P$PASSWD -h $HOST -Bse "SELECT engine FROM information_schema.tables where table_schema = '$db' and table_name = '$table_name';")
    case "$table_engine" in
        InnoDB ) 
            echo "$table_name InnoDB\n" 
            mysqldump --skip-opt --disable-keys --create-options --single-transaction --quick --extended-insert --add-drop-table -P $Port -u $USER -P$PASSWD -h $HOST $db $table_name | gzip -9 >> $FILE
        ;;
        MyISAM) 
            echo "$table_name MyISAM\n" 
            mysqldump --opt -P $Port -u $USER -P$PASSWD -h $HOST $db $table_name | gzip -9 >> $FILE
    esac

    #register all table names
    skiptables="$skiptables --ignore-table=$db.$table_name" 
done

# View
mysqldump -P $Port -u $USER -P$PASSWD -h $HOST $db $skiptables | gzip -9 >> $FILE