pg_dumpall

Description

is a standard PostgreSQL utility for backing up all databases in a Greenplum Database (or PostgreSQL) instance, and is also supported in Greenplum Database. It creates a single (non-parallel) dump file. For routine backups of Greenplum Database it is better to use the Greenplum Database backup utility, gpcrondump, for the best performance.

pg_dumpall creates a single script file that contains SQL commands that can be used as input to to restore the databases. It does this by calling pg_dump for each database. pg_dumpall also dumps global objects that are common to all databases. (pg_dump does not save these objects.) This currently includes information about database users and groups, and access permissions that apply to databases as a whole.

Since pg_dumpall reads tables from all databases you will most likely have to connect as a database superuser in order to produce a complete dump. Also you will need superuser privileges to execute the saved script in order to be allowed to add users and groups, and to create databases.

The SQL script will be written to the standard output. Shell operators should be used to redirect it into a file.

pg_dumpall needs to connect several times to the Greenplum Database master server (once per database). If you use password authentication it is likely to ask for a password each time. It is convenient to have a ~/.pgpass file in such cases.

Note: The --ignore-version option is deprecated and will be removed in a future release.

Dump Options

-a | —data-only

Dump only the data, not the schema (data definitions). This option is only meaningful for the plain-text format. For the archive formats, you may specify the option when you call pg_restore.

-c | —clean

Output commands to clean (drop) database objects prior to (the commands for) creating them. This option is only meaningful for the plain-text format. For the archive formats, you may specify the option when you call .

-d | —inserts

Dump data as INSERT commands (rather than COPY). This will make restoration very slow; it is mainly useful for making dumps that can be loaded into non-PostgreSQL-based databases. Also, since this option generates a separate command for each row, an error in reloading a row causes only that row to be lost rather than the entire table contents. Note that the restore may fail altogether if you have rearranged column order. The -D option is safe against column order changes, though even slower.

-D | —column-inserts | —attribute-inserts

Dump data as INSERT commands with explicit column names (INSERT INTO table (column, ...) VALUES ...). This will make restoration very slow; it is mainly useful for making dumps that can be loaded into non-PostgreSQL-based databases. Also, since this option generates a separate command for each row, an error in reloading a row causes only that row to be lost rather than the entire table contents.

-F | —filespaces

Dump filespace definitions.

-f filename | —file=filename

Send output to the specified file.

-g | —globals-only

Dump only global objects (roles and tablespaces), no databases.

-i | —ignore-version

Note: This option is deprecated and will be removed in a future release.

Ignore version mismatch between pg_dump and the database server. pg_dump can dump from servers running previous releases of Greenplum Database (or PostgreSQL), but very old versions may not be supported anymore. Use this option if you need to override the version check.

Dump object identifiers (OIDs) as part of the data for every table. Use of this option is not recommended for files that are intended to be restored into Greenplum Database.

-O | —no-owner

Do not output commands to set ownership of objects to match the original database. By default, issues or SET SESSION AUTHORIZATION statements to set ownership of created database objects. These statements will fail when the script is run unless it is started by a superuser (or the same user that owns all of the objects in the script). To make a script that can be restored by any user, but will give that user ownership of all the objects, specify -O. This option is only meaningful for the plain-text format. For the archive formats, you may specify the option when you call pg_restore.

-s | —schema-only

Dump only the object definitions (schema), not data.

-S username | —superuser=username

Specify the superuser user name to use when deactivating triggers. This is only relevant if --disable-triggers is used. It is better to leave this out, and instead start the resulting script as a superuser.

Note: Greenplum Database does not support user-defined triggers.

-t | —tablespaces-only

Dump only tablespaces, not databases or roles.

-v | —verbose

Specifies verbose mode. This will cause to output detailed object comments and start/stop times to the dump file, and progress messages to standard error.

-x | —no-privileges | —no-acl

Prevent dumping of access privileges ( GRANT/REVOKE commands).

--disable-dollar-quoting

This option deactivates the use of dollar quoting for function bodies, and forces them to be quoted using SQL standard string syntax.

--disable-triggers

This option is only relevant when creating a data-only dump. It instructs pg_dumpall to include commands to temporarily disable triggers on the target tables while the data is reloaded. Use this if you have triggers on the tables that you do not want to invoke during data reload. The commands emitted for --disable-triggers must be done as superuser. So, you should also specify a superuser name with -S, or preferably be careful to start the resulting script as a superuser.

Note: Greenplum Database does not support user-defined triggers.

--resource-queues

Dump resource queue definitions.

--resource-groups

Dump resource group definitions.

--roles-only

--use-set-session-authorization

Output SQL-standard SET SESSION AUTHORIZATION commands instead of ALTER OWNER commands to determine object ownership. This makes the dump more standards compatible, but depending on the history of the objects in the dump, may not restore properly. A dump using SET SESSION AUTHORIZATION will require superuser privileges to restore correctly, whereas ALTER OWNER requires lesser privileges.

--gp-syntax

Output Greenplum Database syntax in the CREATE TABLE statements. This allows the distribution policy ( DISTRIBUTED BY or clauses) of a Greenplum Database table to be dumped, which is useful for restoring into other Greenplum Database systems.

--no-gp-syntax

Do not output the table distribution clauses in the CREATE TABLE statements.

Connection Options

-h host | —host=host

The host name of the machine on which the Greenplum master database server is running. If not specified, reads from the environment variable PGHOST or defaults to localhost.

-l dbname | —database=dbname

Specifies the name of the database in which to connect to dump global objects. If not specified, the postgres database is used. If the postgres database does not exist, the template1 database is used.

-p port | —port=port

The TCP port on which the Greenplum master database server is listening for connections. If not specified, reads from the environment variable PGPORT or defaults to 5432.

-U username | —username= username

The database role name to connect as. If not specified, reads from the environment variable PGUSER or defaults to the current system role name.

-w

Never prompt for a password.

-W | —password

Force a password prompt.

Notes

Since pg_dumpall calls internally, some diagnostic messages will refer to pg_dump.

Once restored, it is wise to run ANALYZE on each database so the query planner has useful statistics. You can also run vacuumdb -a -z to analyze all databases.

pg_dumpall requires all needed tablespace (filespace) directories to exist before the restore or database creation will fail for databases in non-default locations.

To dump all databases:

To reload this file:

See Also

pg_dump