The easiest way to copy data from another Postgres into ParadeDB is with the pg_dump and pg_restore utilities. These are installed by default when you install psql. This approach is ideal for quickly testing ParadeDB. See the deployment guide for how to deploy ParadeDB into production.

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Create a Dump

Run pg_dump to create a copy of your database. The pg_dump version needs be greater than or equal to that of your Postgres database. You can check the version with pg_dump --version. Below, we use the “custom” format (-Fc) for both pg_dump and pg_restore. Please review the Postgres pg_dump documentation for other options that may be more appropriate for your environment.
Replace host, username, and dbname with your existing Postgres database credentials. If you deployed ParadeDB within your VPC, the host will be the private IP address of your existing Postgres database.
pg_dump -Fc --no-acl --no-owner \
    -h <host> \
    -U <username> \
    <dbname> > old_db.dump
If your database is large, this can take some time. You can speed this up by dumping specific tables. 
pg_dump -Fc --no-acl --no-owner \
    -h <host> \
    -U <username> \
    -t <table_name_1> -t <table_name_2> \
    <dbname> > old_db.dump

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Restore the Dump

Run pg_restore to load this data into ParadeDB. The pg_restore version needs be greater than or equal to that of your pg_dump. You can check the version with pg_restore --version.
Replace host, username, and dbname with your ParadeDB credentials.
pg_restore --verbose --clean --no-acl --no-owner \
    -h <host> \
    -U <username> \
    -d <dbname> \
    -Fc \
    old_db.dump
Congratulations! You are now ready to run real queries over your data. To get started, refer to our full text search documentation.