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, gpbackup, 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 run 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. Use the [-f | --file] option or shell operators 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.

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 .

-f filename | –file=filename

Send output to the specified file.

-g | –globals-only

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

-o | –oids

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, pg_dump issues ALTER OWNER 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 .

-r | –roles-only

Dump only roles, not databases or tablespaces.

-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 relevant only if --disable-triggers is used. It is better to leave this out, and instead start the resulting script as a superuser.

-t | –tablespaces-only

Dump only tablespaces, not databases or roles.

-v | –verbose

Specifies verbose mode. This will cause [pg\_dump](pg_dump.html) to output detailed object comments and start/stop times to the dump file, and progress messages to standard error.

Print the pg_dumpall version and exit.

-x | –no-privileges | –no-acl

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

–binary-upgrade

This option is for use by in-place upgrade utilities. Its use for other purposes is not recommended or supported. The behavior of the option may change in future releases without notice.

–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.

–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 relevant only when creating a data-only dump. It instructs pg_dumpall to include commands to temporarily deactivate 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 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.

–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 --column-inserts option is safe against column order changes, though even slower.

–lock-wait-timeout=timeout

Do not wait forever to acquire shared table locks at the beginning of the dump. Instead, fail if unable to lock a table within the specified timeout. The timeout may be specified in any of the formats accepted by SET statement_timeout. Allowed values vary depending on the server version you are dumping from, but an integer number of milliseconds is accepted by all Greenplum Database versions.

–no-security-labels

Do not dump security labels.

–no-tablespaces

Do not output commands to select tablespaces. With this option, all objects will be created in whichever tablespace is the default during restore.

–no-unlogged-table-data

Do not dump the contents of unlogged tables. This option has no effect on whether or not the table definitions (schema) are dumped; it only suppresses dumping the table data.

–quote-all-identifiers

Force quoting of all identifiers. This option is recommended when dumping a database from a server whose Greenplum Database major version is different from pg_dumpall’s, or when the output is intended to be loaded into a server of a different major version. By default, pg_dumpall quotes only identifiers that are reserved words in its own major version. This sometimes results in compatibility issues when dealing with servers of other versions that may have slightly different sets of reserved words. Using --quote-all-identifiers prevents such issues, at the price of a harder-to-read dump script.

–resource-queues

Dump resource queue definitions.

–resource-groups

Dump resource group definitions.

–use-set-session-authorization

–gp-syntax

Output Greenplum Database syntax in the CREATE TABLE statements. This allows the distribution policy ( DISTRIBUTED BY or DISTRIBUTED RANDOMLY 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.

-? | –help

Show help about pg_dumpall command line arguments, and exit.

Connection Options

-d connstr | –dbname=connstr

Specifies parameters used to connect to the server, as a connection string. See Connection Strings in the PostgreSQL documentation for more information.

The option is called for consistency with other client applications, but because pg_dumpall needs to connect to many databases, the database name in the connection string will be ignored. Use the -l option to specify the name of the database used to dump global objects and to discover what other databases should be dumped.

-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 | –no-password

Never issue a password prompt. If the server requires password authentication and a password is not available by other means such as a .pgpass file the connection attempt will fail. This option can be useful in batch jobs and scripts where no user is present to enter a password.

-W | –password

Force a password prompt.

–role=rolename

Specifies a role name to be used to create the dump. This option causes pg_dumpall to issue a SET ROLE <rolename> command after connecting to the database. It is useful when the authenticated user (specified by -U) lacks privileges needed by pg_dumpall, but can switch to a role with the required rights. Some installations have a policy against logging in directly as a superuser, and use of this option allows dumps to be made without violating the policy.

Notes

Since pg_dumpall calls pg_dump 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 to vacuum and analyze all databases.

pg_dumpall requires all needed tablespace directories to exist before the restore; otherwise, database creation will fail for databases in non-default locations.

To dump all databases:

To reload database(s) from this file, you can use:

To dump only global objects (including resource queues):

See Also