PostgreSQL - how to restore very large database

Question

I got a little problem when I try to restore a large database (almost 32Go in custom format) on my devel database node (this node has less RAM, CPU... than my production server).

My database dumps are generated with a command similar to:

pg_dump -F custom -b myDB -Z 9 > /backup/myDB-`date +%y%m%d`.pg91

And when I restore it, I used the following command:

pg_restore -F custom -j 5 -d myDB /backup/myDB-20130331.pg91

But here, each time the restore command failed with an error like:

pg_restore: [archiver (db)] error returned by PQputCopyData: server closed the connection unexpectedly
This probably means the server terminated abnormally
    before or while processing the request.
pg_restore: [archiver] worker process failed: exit code 1
pg_restore: [archiver (db)] error returned by PQputCopyData: server closed the connection unexpectedly
This probably means the server terminated abnormally
    before or while processing the request.
pg_restore: [archiver (db)] error returned by PQputCopyData: server closed the connection unexpectedly
This probably means the server terminated abnormally
    before or while processing the request.
pg_restore: [archiver (db)] error returned by PQputCopyData: server closed the connection unexpectedly
This probably means the server terminated abnormally
    before or while processing the request.

And when I check my postgresql logs, I can read this:

   HINT:  In a moment you should be able to reconnect to the database and repeat your command.
   LOG:  all server processes terminated; reinitializing
   LOG:  database system was interrupted; last known up at 2013-04-02 11:41:48 UTC
   LOG:  database system was not properly shut down; automatic recovery in progress
   LOG:  redo starts at 86/26F302B0
   LOG:  unexpected pageaddr 85/E3F52000 in log file 134, segment 38, offset 16064512
   LOG:  redo done at 86/26F51FC0
   LOG:  last completed transaction was at log time 2013-04-02 11:50:47.663599+00
   LOG:  database system is ready to accept connections
   LOG:  autovacuum launcher started

It's quite strange, my postgresql server "restarts" alone just because of my restore. I try to minimize the number of jobs ( -j 5 option) but still got the same problem. However on a node with better specs, I have no problem to restore this database. I'm not sure but maybe the updates of my indexes (one of them is really too large) could be a clue to understand this issue?

So I have some questions: is there a better way to restore really large database? Do I miss something in my pg_restore command? May be the settings of my devel server are too low?

Any clue will be greatly appreciated. Thank in advance.

env: PostgreSQL 9.1 (installed via Debian packages)

Answer 1

For this kind of big work, it is recommended to disable the autovacuum (by set it to off in your postgresql.conf ) during the restoration process.

It seems it finally works for me.