Methods for moving a geodatabase in PostgreSQL

There are several options for moving a geodatabase: you can create a new geodatabase and move the data, or you can move the whole database.

Creating a new geodatabase then moving the data

You can create a new PostgreSQL database, create a geodatabase in it, then move your existing data to the new geodatabase. This can be done using copy and paste, the export tool, the Extract Data wizard, or XML workspace documents in ArcGIS.

Be aware that the user who logged in when loading the data to the new geodatabase will own the data. If you want the data to have the same owner in the new geodatabase, have each user move their own data.

Moving a PostgreSQL database

You can move individual PostgreSQL databases using the pg_dump command.

The pg_dump command can extract the database definition (schema) and data or just the database schema to a Structured Query Language (SQL) script or an archive file. If you extract to an archive file, you can use the pg_restore command to rebuild the database on another PostgreSQL instance. If you extract to an SQL script, run the SQL script on the new server to rebuild the database.

The following are some guidelines for moving PostgreSQL databases with pg_dump:

For specific information on how to use pg_dump or pg_restore, see the PostgreSQL documentation.

8/21/2013