database size changed after restoring using pg_restore

På onsdag 08. november 2017 kl. 23:59:40, skrev Dylan Luong <
Dylan.Luong@unisa.edu.au <mailto:Dylan.Luong@unisa.edu.au>>:
Hi

I am upgrading some databases from a PostgreSQL 9.2 server to a new
PostgreSQL 9.6 server.

I used pg_dump and pg_restore for the upgrade.

This is the command I used to dump the database. I ran the command from the
9.6 server.

pg_dump -h 9.2server -j 16 --format=directory -f
/pg_backup/backup/dump/mydb-20171108.dmp -U postgres -W mydb

This is the command I used to restore the database on the 9.6server.

pg_restore -j 16 -C -d postgres /pg_backup/backup/dump/mydb-20171108.dmp

Everything appears ok, the dump and restore completed without and errors.

But when I listed the size of the database (postgres=# \l+) between the 9.2
and the upgraded 9.6, they were different.

on 9.2 it was 3776 MB

on 9.6 it was 1570 MB

I also did a few more databases using the same steps and they all appeared to
be smaller. Is that normal?

Yep.
 
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CTO / Partner - Visena AS
Mobile: +47 909 56 963
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On 11/8/2017 2:59 PM, Dylan Luong wrote:

Hi

I am upgrading some databases from a PostgreSQL 9.2 server to a new
PostgreSQL 9.6 server.

I used pg_dump and pg_restore for the upgrade.

.....

But when I listed the size of the database (postgres=# \l+) between
the 9.2 and the upgraded 9.6, they were different.

on 9.2 it was 3776 MB
on 9.6 it was 1570 MB

I also did a few more databases using the same steps and they all
appeared to be smaller. Is that normal?

yes.  a freshly restored database will be all contiguous with no
embedded free tuples left over from operations.   databases that get
updates (or inserts/deletes) tend to bloat.

--
john r pierce, recycling bits in santa cruz