PostgreSQL Upgrade Options
Backup, Upgrade, and Recover Qlik Sense
Overview
There are two paths to follow when upgrading PostgreSQL server. The path you choose depends on one thing - whether your Qlik Sense server is using standalone or bundled installation PostgreSQL. There is one option for upgrading bundled PostgreSQL and one option for upgrading standalone PostgreSQL.
In this lesson, we’ll take a high-level overview of both options to get a better sense for what to expect when working with either of the options to update PostgreSQL. Let’s get started!
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01. Bundled PostgreSQL Upgrade Option
If your Qlik Sense server is using bundled installation of PostgreSQL database, we will be using Qlik PostgreSQL Installer (QPI) Tool to get PostgreSQL updated. To help us Qlik Sense Admins with PostgreSQL server upgrade process, Qlik build Qlik PostgreSQL Installer (QPI) tool. At high level, this tool:
Installs a new version of PostgreSQL.
Automatically copies contents of PostgreSQL server from old version to newly installed one.
Unbundles PostgreSQL from Qlik Sense
In other words, it converts PostgreSQL from a bundled installation to a standalone installation.
This enables us to have more control over keeping PostgreSQL up to date going forward.
Next lesson we’ll take a closer look at what QPI tool is, where to find it, and how to tell if you need to use it.
02. Standalone PostgreSQL Upgrade Option
If your Qlik Sense server runs on a standalone version of PostgreSQL, then the upgrade process is very similar. We will:
Install a newer version of PostgreSQL.
Use pg_upgrade command along with few other commands to copy contents of PostgreSQL server from old version to newly installed one.
Confirm that all data was successfully copied to new version of PostgreSQL.
Do some cleanup to remove the old database once we confirmed that Qlik Sense works well on the new version of PostgreSQL.
I recommend installing Qlik Sense with a standalone PostgreSQL database as this option gives most control to you and me for upgrading and maintaining PostgreSQL.
If you also like the idea of having flexibility and more control over keeping PostgreSQL up to date, but your Qlik Sense server is using bundled installation of PostgreSQL, the QPI tool will help you do both - upgrade PostgreSQL to a newer version and unbundle PostgreSQL to give you that flexibility and control over PostgreSQL update schedule going forward. More on that in the next lesson.
Guide
Summary
Key Takeaways
Qlik Sense can operate with bundled or standalone installation of PostgreSQL.
Bundled installation of PostgreSQL is easier to install initially when Qlik Sense is being installed but is more challenging to upgrade.
Standalone installation of PostgreSQL takes few extra steps to setup when installing Qlik Sense but provides more flexibility and control over upgrade schedule.
There are two options for upgrading PostgreSQL server:
Using QPI tool for bundled PostgreSQL installations to upgrade and unbundle PostgreSQL.
Using PostgreSQL native commands to upgrade standalone installation of PostgreSQL.
With this covered, let’s take a closer look at QPI tool to get a better sense for what it is and how we will be using it to upgrade bundled installation of PostgreSQL. I’ll see you in the next lesson.
P.S. If you don’t need to upgrade bundled installations of PostgreSQL, you can skip over to Standalone PostgreSQL Upgrade Overview lesson instead.
References
Up Next
What Is Qlik PostgreSQL Installer (QPI) Tool?
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