Geoffrey <lists at serioustechnology.com> writes:
> We are planning on setting up a single 'master -> slave' configuration
> for disaster recovery.  The master and slave machines will be located
> in different locations.
>
> I'm a bit confused by the documentation:
>
> From 3.1, At present, Slony-I as well as PostgreSQL need to be able to
> be compiled from source at your site.
>
> Warning in section 4:
>
> If you need Slony-I to do an upgrade from some elderly version of
> PostgreSQL to a newer version, or if you need a late-breaking CVS
> version, outside the context of a major release, then be prepared to
> need to build both PostgreSQL and Slony-I from source. The remainder
> of this section assumes this...

Thanks for pointing that out; I'll modify s3.1, which has become "less
accurate."

> From 4.7
>
> Even though Slony-I can be compiled and run on most Linux
> distributions, it is also possible to install Slony-I using binary
> packages. Slony Global Development Team provides official RPMs and
> SRPMs for many versions or Red Hat ana Fedora Core.
>
> So my question is, is it necessary to compile Slony and/or Postgres
> for this environment?  We are running Postgresql 7.4.18 on Red Hat AS
> 4.  It would be a lot easier if I didn't have to compile Postgresql.

On 7.4, with Slony-I versions newer than 1.1.0, as long as you do have
the "development package(s)" installed, you should be able to avoid
the need to build PostgreSQL from scratch.

If someone doesn't already have a binary Slony-I package for your
PostgreSQL release, then it's likely that you will be stuck compiling
Slony-I...

> Also, I don't see a reference to how I 'prime' the slave.  That is, is
> there an easy way to get the existing historical data from my master
> machine to the slave?  Will Slony replicate everything at the time it
> is configured and started?

The subscription process pulls all data from the "provider" node, so
that yes, it will automatically grab the existing historical data.

You need to "prime" the slave node with the database schema, but the
tables should preferably be left empty, as they will get TRUNCATEd as
part of the subscription process.
-- 
let name="cbbrowne" and tld="linuxfinances.info" in String.concat "@" [name;tld];;
http://linuxdatabases.info/info/multiplexor.html
I have this nagging fear that everyone is out to make me paranoid.