update to 16.2

On Mar 8, 2024, at 00:53, Matthias Apitz <guru@unixarea.de> wrote:
It does not say definitely that for all other versions a dump/restore is
required.

You cannot just replace the binaries to upgrade from an earlier major version to 16.X. The release notes use "a dump/restore (is/is not) required" to indicated whether you can just replace the binaries ("is not") and restart the server on the same database files.

Dump/restore is not the only option for a major version upgrade. You can use the pg_upgrade utility that is part of the standard distribution, or logical replication to a new server on the new version.

On 8 Mar 2024, at 09:53, Matthias Apitz <guru@unixarea.de> wrote:

It does not say definitely that for all other versions a dump/restore is
required.

I recommend reading https://www.postgresql.org/docs/16/upgrading.html before
attempting anything. Minor version upgrades and major version upgrades are
very different things.

--
Daniel Gustafsson

El día viernes, marzo 08, 2024 a las 12:56:16 -0800, Christophe Pettus escribió:

On Mar 8, 2024, at 00:53, Matthias Apitz <guru@unixarea.de> wrote:
It does not say definitely that for all other versions a dump/restore is
required.

You cannot just replace the binaries to upgrade from an earlier major version to 16.X. The release notes use "a dump/restore (is/is not) required" to indicated whether you can just replace the binaries ("is not") and restart the server on the same database files.

I know we can't just switch the binaries and restart the server. We're
compiling the PostgreSQL software by our own (even with some small
changes in the C-code) and deliver the full tree as

/usr/local/sisis-pap/pgsql-11.1
/usr/local/sisis-pap/pgsql-14.1
/usr/local/sisis-pap/pgsql-15.1
...

Also the migration path for customers is described and based on
pg_dumpall, setup a new cluster fromm the above new version and load the
dump with the new psql command into. The other option (pg_upgrade) we
never used.

matthias

--
Matthias Apitz, ✉ guru@unixarea.de, http://www.unixarea.de/ +49-176-38902045
Public GnuPG key: http://www.unixarea.de/key.pub

I am not at war with Russia. Я не воюю с Россией.
Ich bin nicht im Krieg mit Russland.

On Fri, Mar 8, 2024 at 5:01 AM Matthias Apitz <guru@unixarea.de> wrote:

El día viernes, marzo 08, 2024 a las 12:56:16 -0800, Christophe Pettus
escribió:

On Mar 8, 2024, at 00:53, Matthias Apitz <guru@unixarea.de> wrote:
It does not say definitely that for all other versions a dump/restore

is

required.

You cannot just replace the binaries to upgrade from an earlier major

version to 16.X. The release notes use "a dump/restore (is/is not)
required" to indicated whether you can just replace the binaries ("is not")
and restart the server on the same database files.

I know we can't just switch the binaries and restart the server. We're
compiling the PostgreSQL software by our own (even with some small
changes in the C-code) and deliver the full tree as

/usr/local/sisis-pap/pgsql-11.1
/usr/local/sisis-pap/pgsql-14.1
/usr/local/sisis-pap/pgsql-15.1
...

Also the migration path for customers is described and based on
pg_dumpall, setup a new cluster fromm the above new version and load the
dump with the new psql command into. The other option (pg_upgrade) we
never used.

Upgrading onto a new Linux server (try logical replication or pg_dump -Fd
--jobs=), or staying on the old server (pg_upgrade)?

On Fri, Mar 8, 2024 at 5:01 AM Matthias Apitz <guru@unixarea.de> wrote:

The other option (pg_upgrade) we never used.

You really should give this a shot. Much easier, and orders of magnitude
faster with the --link option. It should work fine even with a
custom-compiled postgres (really, as long as pg_dump can still read things
and core changes are not radical). Try it and see.

Cheers,
Greg

On 3/8/24 00:53, Matthias Apitz wrote:

Hello,

We plan to update our customers on SuSE Linux from 11.4, 13.1, 14.1 and
15.1 to 16.2. Do I understand the release notes correct that for this
the way is only dump/restore? The release notes say:

https://www.postgresql.org/docs/release/16.2/
...
.
...
It does not say definitely that for all other versions a dump/restore is
required.

In the current versioning scheme(10+) the version is X.x where X is
major version and x is minor version. Any time you move from a major to
a major version the binaries are not guaranteed to be compatible and you
will need to do a dump/restore, pg_upgrade or logical step to move to
the new version. A minor to minor upgrade within a major version in
general does not require those steps. The 'A dump/restore is not
required for those running 16.X' note is there in case there is an
instance when a dump/restore is needed in which case it would be changed
to '... is required ...' . This is the case in the development releases
of a new version(before X.0) where you usually do have to dump/restore,
etc between minor version changes. The note is there to remove any
ambiguity.

We could even unload in the databases the ~400 tables to COPY format,
re-create the tables in a new 16.2 server and load the ~400 files (all this
relatively easy per scripts we created to migrate from Sybase and Oracle
to PostgreSQL). But I think, producing the dump with the old version,
setup new cluster and load the dump with the 16.2 sql command will work.

Any comments?

matthias

--
Adrian Klaver
adrian.klaver@aklaver.com