You can dump the whole PostgreSQL cluster with pg_dumpall. That's all the databases and all the globals for a single cluster. From the command line on the server, I'd do something like this. (Mine's listening on port 5433, not on the default port.) You may or may not need the --clean option.
$ pg_dumpall -U postgres -h localhost -p 5433 --clean --file=dump.sql
This includes the globals--information about users and groups, tablespaces, and so on.
If I were going to backup a single database and move it to a scratch server, I'd dump the database with pg_dump, and dump the globals with either
pg_dumpall --globals-only
, or
pg_dumpall --roles-only
(if you only need roles)
like this.
$ pg_dump -U postgres -h localhost -p 5433 --clean --file=sandbox.sql sandbox
$ pg_dumpall -U postgres -h localhost -p 5433 --clean --globals-only --file=globals.sql
Outputs are just text files.
After you move these files to a different server, load the globals first, then the database dump.
$ psql -U postgres -h localhost -p 5433 < globals.sql
$ psql -U postgres -h localhost -p 5433 < sandbox.sql
I thought pg_dumpall would at least backup foreign keys, but even that
seems to be an 'option'. According to:
http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.1/static/app-pg-dumpall.html even
with pg_dumpall I need to use a -o option to backup foreign keys
No, that reference says "Use this option if your application references the OID columns in some way (e.g., in a foreign key constraint). Otherwise, this option should not be used." (Emphasis added.) I think it's unlikely that your application references the OID columns. You don't need to use this option to "backup foreign keys". (Read the dump file in your editor or file viewer.)
Yes, you can assume it is safe to use NOT BLOCKING as a valid means of backing up your HSQLDB.
I don't believe the backup would contain "partial" transactions, more likely all versions encountered during the backup operations, hence the larger backup size and more complicated restore process.
Best Answer
From MSDN
All the verify backup option does is confirm that the header of your backup is readable, nothing else.
Neither of these options will tell you that you have a good backup! The only way to confirm that your backup is good is to restore it on another system