Upgrading PostgreSQL with pg_migrator

30 Sep 2009

I've always done PostgreSQL upgrades via the time-honored "dump and load" method. This works, but it takes a while as you can see from the notes on the RubyForge PostgreSQL 8.2 => 8.3 upgrade.

Happily, with PostgreSQL 8.4, the dump/load routine is no longer necessary. There's a new game in town, and it's pg_migrator. This utility copies over the appropriate bits from your old PostgreSQL installation and adds them to your new one, with the result being a much shorter downtime.

I've done two 8.3 => 8.4 upgrades so far; here are some notes:

That's all I can think of for now. I'll add some notes to this after I do the RubyForge upgrade... these first couple upgrades have been "area familiarity".