Save database on external hard drive - sql

Question

I am creating some databases using PostgreSQL but I want to save them on an external hard drive due to lack of memory in my computer.
How can I do this?

Answer 1

You can store the database on another disk by specifying it as the data_directory setting. You need to specify this at startup and it will apply to all databases.
You can put it in postgresql.conf:
data_directory = '/volume/path/'
Or, specify it on the command line when you start PostgreSQL:
postgres -c data_directory='/volume/path/'
Reference: 18.2. File Locations

Answer 2

STEP 1: If postgresql is running, stop it:
sudo systemctl stop postgresql
STEP 2: Get the path to access your hard drive.
(if Linux) Find and mount your hard drive by:
# Retrieve your device's name with:
sudo fdisk -l
# Then mount your device
sudo mount /dev/DEVICE_NAME YOUR_HD_DIR_PATH
STEP 3: Copy the existing database directory to the new location (in your hard drive) with rsync.
sudo rsync -av /var/lib/postgresql YOUR_HD_DIR_PATH
Then rename the previous postgres main dir with .bak extension to prevent conflicts
sudo mv /var/lib/postgresql/11/main /var/lib/postgresql/11/main.bak
Note: my postgres version was 11. Replace in path with your version.
STEP 4: Edit postgres configuration file:
sudo nano /etc/postgresql/11/main/postgresql.conf
Change the data_directory line with:
data_directory = 'YOUR_HD_DIR_PATH/postgresql/11/main'
STEP 5: Restart Postgres & Check everything is working
sudo systemctl start postgresql
pg_lsclusters
Output should shows status as 'online'
Ver Cluster Port Status Owner Data directory Log file
11 main 5432 online postgres YOUR_HD_DIR_PATH/postgresql/11/main /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-11-main.log
Finally your can access your PostgresSQL with:
sudo -u postgres psql

Answer 3

You can try following the walkthrough here. This worked well for me and is similar to #Antiez's answer.
Currently, I am trying to do the same and the only conflict that I'm having at the moment is that it seems there is an issue with PostgreSQL's incremental backup and point-in-time recovery proccesses. I think it has something to do with folder permissions. If I try uploading a ~30MB csv to the postgres db, it will crash and the server will not start again because files cannot be written to the pg_wal directory. The only file in that directory is 000000010000000000000001 and does not move on to 000000010000000000000002 etc. while writing to a new table.
My stackoverflow post looking for a solution to this issue can be found here.