When I began, I used `pg_dump` with the default plain format. I was unenlightened.

Research revealed to me time and file size improvements with `pg_dump -Fc | gzip -9 -c > dumpfile.gz`. I was enlightened.

When it came time to create the database anew,

```
# create tablespace dbname location '/SAN/dbname';
# create database dbname tablespace dbname;
# alter database dbname set temp_tablespaces = dbname;

% gunzip dumpfile.gz              # to evaluate restore time without a piped uncompression
% pg_restore -d dbname dumpfile   # into a new, empty database defined above

```

I felt unenlightened: the restore took 12 hours to create the database that's only a fraction of what it will become:

```
# select pg_size_pretty(pg_database_size('dbname'));
47 GB

```

Because there are predictions this database will be a few terabytes, I need to look at improving performance now.

Please, enlighten me.