> Eric Yum wrote
> I am using PostgreSQL 7.3 as DB server in my company. I am preparing
> some DB backup and maintenance procedures. I found from Administrator
> guide that we can use "dump" command to backup the DB. It
> just allow me
> to backup the whole DB and restore the whole DB. I wonder that is any
> command or feature in PostgreSQL allow me to have incremental backup
> policy like SQL Server. In addition, when I restore the DB, is it
> possible to select the specify time frame to restore.
I'm working on this right now; PostgreSQL community calls this Point in
Time Recovery (PITR). This will allow you to take hot backups
occasionally, then backup the transaction logs in between. You would
need to migrate to 7.5 when it becomes available approx 3 months from
now (earlier in dev versions).
The design doesn't currently offer a facility to specify the time frame
to restore. I will be recommending calculating this following the
testing of your recovery procedures. It would then be up to you to
specify appropriately spaced full database backups to give you the MTTR
you require.
[Please note that PostgreSQL does not currently support "incremental"
backup, i.e. only what has changed since last backup, nor will it when
PITR is implemented...thats something different again]
Best Regards, Simon Riggs, 2ndQuadrant