Migrating database from local development to Heroku-Django 1.8

Question

After establishing a database using heroku addons:create heroku-postgresql:hobby-dev, I tried to migrate my local database to heroku database. So I first ran

heroku python manage.py migrate. After that I created a dump file of my local database using pg_dump -Fc --no-acl --no-owner -h localhost -U myuser mydb > mydb.dump. I uploaded my mydb.dump file to dropbox and then used the following command to load the dump to my heroku database

 heroku pg:backups restore'https://www.dropbox.com/s/xkc8jhav70hgqfd/mydb.dump?' HEROKU_POSTGRESQL_COLOR_URL

But, that throws the following error -

 r004 ---restore---> HEROKU_POSTGRESQL_PURPLE
 [0KRunning... 0.00B..
 [0KAn error occurred and your backup did not finish.
 Please run `heroku pg:backups info r004` for details.

And on running heroku pg:backups info r004 I get -

Database:    BACKUP
Started:     2015-06-25 18:19:37 +0000
Finished:    2015-06-25 18:19:38 +0000
Status:      Failed
Type:        Manual
Backup Size: 0.00B
=== Backup Logs
2015-06-25 18:19:38 +0000: waiting for restore to complete
2015-06-25 18:19:38 +0000: pg_restore: [archiver] did not find magic string in file header
2015-06-25 18:19:38 +0000: restore done
2015-06-25 18:19:38 +0000: waiting for download to complete
2015-06-25 18:19:38 +0000: download done

There is not much information on this error online and I can't figure out what the problem is.

@TommasoBarbugli 7.4mb. I've got a free heroku account. Is the database size too much? — WutWut, Jun 25 '15 at 19:50
The problem may actually be somewhere completely different: Dropbox is usually not offering the raw file on that link. Instead it is serving a download page. Add a `?raw=1` to the end of the URL to retrieve the raw file and use with heroku pg:backups. — Jelko, Aug 02 '16 at 14:29

score 21 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 25 '15 at 19:35

21

If the database is small and you feel lucky this might do it

pg_dump --no-acl --no-owner -h localhost -U myuser myd | heroku pg:psql

answered Jun 25 '15 at 19:35

Tommaso Barbugli

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It worked. Wonder why the statement I was using didn't work since that is what heroku docs recommends for importing database. – WutWut Jun 25 '15 at 19:57
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You are a life saver dude. – Mike Johnson Jr Jun 04 '17 at 17:40
i get Error: Missing required flag with this cmd – Ait Yahia Idir May 03 '20 at 00:11

score 9 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 01 '16 at 21:34

9

I've had this error too and my solution was a little different. The problem was related to the format used. I needed to use --format=c when dumping the db.

To solve it I dumped the db again using --format=c

pg_dump --no-acl --no-owner --format=c database_name > db.dump

Then importing it to my heroku app

heroku pg:backups restore 'url_for_db.dump' DATABASE_URL

Hope this helps someone in the future!

answered Feb 01 '16 at 21:34

Ignacio Palladino

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I literally just logged in so I could upvote you and comment. This saved my bacon and was the solution for me. Thank you so much!!! – Nick Schwaderer Feb 20 '17 at 16:20
"--format=c " that is what was missing, perfect, thank you – Radek Sep 03 '17 at 19:38

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 22 '16 at 22:53

1

You can use : heroku pg:push mylocaldb HEROKU_POSTGRESQL_MAGENTA --app sushi

source: https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/heroku-postgresql#pg-push

answered Sep 22 '16 at 22:53

Dinatih

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shaded · Answer 4 · 2017-09-07T20:25:00.617

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For windows users;

heroku pg:backups:restore "https://s3.amazonaws.com/me/items/3H0q/mydb.dump" DATABASE_URL

According to the official docs, be sure to use double-quotes around the remote url if you're using windows. see official docs

edited Sep 07 '17 at 20:25

answered Sep 07 '17 at 20:12

shaded

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Migrating database from local development to Heroku-Django 1.8

4 Answers4