A) What is the best solution for regularly backing up large PostgreSQL database (version 8.3 running on latest Ubuntu server); please don’t say pg_dump with those painfully slow insert statements
B) What is the best solution for PostgreSQL database replication that works in real world
A. pg_dump doesn’t use insert statements by default. It will use the COPY command by default. The command line switch of -d or –inserts will cause pg_dump to put insert statements in the export. If you have either of these switches in your pg_dump command, just remove them to have pg_dump use COPY.
B. In the upcoming version of Postgres, they are going to have simple replication out of the box. I think the 8.4 release is planned soon. So, it might be worth wating for that, if possible.