As with everything that contains valuable data, PostgreSQL databases should be backed up regularly. While the procedure is essentially simple, it is important to have a clear understanding of the underlying techniques and assumptions.
There are three fundamentally different approaches to backing up PostgreSQL data:
SQL dump
File system level backup
Continuous archiving
Each has its own strengths and weaknesses; each is discussed in turn in the following sections.
Read the upstream documentation. For corrections, first check the current version.