This document provides instructions for setting up hot standby replication between a primary and secondary PostgreSQL database. It describes configuring WAL archiving on the primary, taking a backup of the primary to initialize the secondary, creating a recovery.conf file on the secondary, and testing replication. It also explains how to trigger a failover, switchover, and rebuild the primary database after a failover.

1. Hot Stand By
Setup, Failover and Rebuilding the Master
3/6/2014

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Prepare the Instance
 Install Postgres on Servers which are going to hold Primary and Secondary
database
 Setup and configure the database cluster on Primary servers
 In this example:
 Primary DB Server:
 dbserver1
 192.168.160.147
 Data directory: /opt/PostgresPlus/9.2AS/data
 Port: 5444
 Stand by DB Server
 dbserver2
 192.168.160.150
 Data Directory: /opt/PostgresPlus/9.2AS/data2
 Port: 5222
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Edit postgresql.conf and pg_hba.conf on
master
 wal_level = hot_standby (mandatory)
 max_wal_senders = 3 (mandatory to be set to a positive integer)
 wal_keep_segments = 128 (optional/depending on load)
 replication_timeout = 5 sec (optional)
 hot_standby = on (effective only for hot stand by server)
Add entry in pg_hba.conf
• host replication all 192.168.0.0/16 trust
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4. Confidentialinformation,forinternaluseonly
Take a Backup and restore on Secondary
 Take a cold backup of Primary DB Instance/Cluster
 Restore the same for creating the DB cluster/instance on
Secondary server
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Create recovery.conf in Secondary Server
 standby_mode = 'on'
 primary_conninfo = 'host=192.168.160.147 port=5444 user=enterprisedb
password=ashnik'
 restore_command = 'scp enterprisedb@192.168.160.147:/mnt/arch/%f %p'
# optional
# needs archiving command to be enabled on primary
 recovery_target_timeline = 'latest' #optional
 trigger_file = '/opt/PostgresPlus/9.2AS/data2/recover.trigger'
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Start the servers
 Start the secondary server
 There will be a warning in log files that primary server is not
available, ignore that
 Start the primary server
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Test Replication
On Primary:
edb=# insert into replication_test values (2);
INSERT 0 1
On Secondary:
edb=# select * from replication_test;
test_column
-------------
1
2
(2 rows)
Secondary server is read-only:
edb=# insert into replication_test values (3);
ERROR: cannot execute INSERT in a read-only transaction
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Triggering the Failover
 To, Trigger a failure on Primary and create the recovery trigger file (manually, but can be scripted too)
touch opt/PostgresPlus/9.2AS/data2/recover.trigger
 Logic to script the above step:
while( pg_ctl -h 192.168.160.147 –p 5444 -c "select 1 “)
{
; #do nothing
}
touch opt/PostgresPlus/9.2AS/data2/recover.trigger
 Once completed, the recovery.conf will change to recover.done
 Connect to secondary db and execute insert to confirm the failover
edb=# insert into replication_test values (4);
INSERT 0 1
Or execute select pg_is_in_recovery(); (output must be “f”) to confirm recovery is completed
 Point the database/Virtual IP to new database server 8

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Triggering the Switchover
 Disconnect all the application from Primary Node
 Shutdown the primary database
 To, Trigger a failure on Primary and create the recovery trigger file
touch opt/PostgresPlus/9.2AS/data2/recover.trigger
 Once completed, the recovery.conf will change to recover.done
 Connect to secondary db and execute insert
edb=# insert into replication_test values (4);
INSERT 0 1
Or execute select pg_is_in_recovery(); (output must be “f”) to confirm recovery is completed
 Point the database/Virtual IP to new database server
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Rebuilding the Master
 Let’s remove the data directory on Old Primary (dbserver1)
rm -Rf /opt/PostgresPlus/9.2AS/data
 Restore the primary server from Secondary server (Switched to Master
now: dbserver2):
pg_basebackup -D /opt/PostgresPlus/9.2AS/data -h 192.168.160.150 -W -p 5222 -Fp --xlog-method=stream
#This step does not need down time
 Change the port number in postgresql.conf on restored data directory
 Change the recovery.done to recovery.conf in data directory copied just
now and make changes in configuration to point to new master
 Start the old primary instance as new hot standby
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Monitoring the Replication
Check if the current node is master or slave:
• SELECT pg_is_in_recovery();
See the current snapshot on master and slave:
• SELECT txid_current_snapshot();
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Sameer Kumar
Ashnik Pte Ltd, Singapore
www.ashnik.com | sameer.kumar@ashnik.com