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I'm running a NAS server with an SD card mounted as / and RAID-1 storage mounted under /media/hdd. /etc folder is on SD card. PostgreSQL data folder is on the RAID-1 disk.

/-+
  +- etc
  |  +- postgres
  |     +- 10
  |        +- mycluster 
  |
  +- media
     |
     +- hdd
        +- pgsql
           +- data
              +- mycluster

If I want to move RAID-1 disks to a different box, what is the correct way to re-create a PostgreSQL cluster using exiting data folder? Let's assume I stopped the cluster, shutdown the system, took out hard disks and attached them to another box. Can I create a new cluster on that box using the existing data folder on the attached hard disks?

Thank you in advance.

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Yes, that is no problem, as long as

  • you are using the same major version of PostgreSQL on the new machine

  • PostgreSQL was built in the same way

  • both machines have the same architecture and operating system version (the version is relevant because it might affect the collations, changing versions requires a REINDEX)

Running PostgreSQL on a NAS file system is dangerous, because many NAS implementations are not reliable.

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  • What is the correct way to do that? when I run sudo pg_createcluster 10 mycluster -d /media/hdd/mycloud/pgsql/mycluster I get Configuring already existing cluster (configuration: /etc/postgresql/10/mycluster, data: /media/hdd/mycloud/pgsql/mycluster, owner: 110:115) Error: move_conffile: required configuration file /media/hdd/mycloud/pgsql/mycluster/postgresql.conf does not exist
    – Y2i
    Commented Jun 26, 2019 at 6:27
  • Looks like the dreaded Debian packages. Just create a new cluster (with the same major version), stop the server, remove the data directory, replace it with your data directory, replace the configuration files (which are somewhere under /etc on Debian) and start the server.
    – Laurenz Albe
    Commented Jun 26, 2019 at 8:57
  • Thank you, it worked!
    – Y2i
    Commented Jun 26, 2019 at 15:23

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