transfer db from one heroku app to another faster

Question

Is there a faster way to transfer my production database to a test app? Currently I'm doing a `heroku db:pull` to my local machine then `heroku db:push --app testapp` but this is becoming time consuming. I have some seed data but it is not nearly as accurate as simply testing with my real-world data. And since they're both stored on a neighboring AWS cloud, there must be a faster way to move the data? I thought about using a heroku bundle, but I noticed the animate command is gone? ``` bundles:animate <bundle> # animate a bundle into a new app ```

Accepted Answer

It's quite common to migrate databases between staging, testing and production environments for Rails Apps. And `heroku db:pull/push` is painfully slow. The best way I have found so far is using Heroku PG Backups add-on and it's free. I followed following steps to migrate production database to staging server:

1) Create the backup for the production-app db

```
heroku pg:backups capture --app production-app
```

This will generate b001 backup file from the main database (usually production db in database.yml)

2) To view all the backups (OPTIONAL)

```
heroku pg:backups --app production-app
```

3) Now use the pg:backups restore command to populate staging server database from the last backup file on production server

```
heroku pg:backups restore $(heroku pg:backups public-url --app production-app) DATABASE_URL --app staging-app
```

Remember that restore is a destructive operation, it will delete existing data before replacing it with the contents of the backup file.

transfer db from one heroku app to another faster

Solution

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