1. Which database dump formats are supported by the migration platform?

The migration platform accepts a lot of different formats: 
PostgreSQL custom dump, PostgreSQL tar-format, plain text sql or compressed plain text sql.

If you want to compress a plain text sql dump, you can use a variety of compression methods: 
gzip, zip, rar, xz, 7zip, bzip2

If you don't really know which format to choose, see question 2.

2. Which database dump format is the best for the migration?

You have 2 choices:

• if you want a fast database dump and restore, choose the PostgreSQL tar-format compressed with gzip
• if you want a small database dump file, choose the PostgreSQL tar-format compressed with xz

If you want to know how to dump/restore the format of your choosing, see question 3.

3. What are the pros and cons of each database dump methods and how to dump/restore a database with the method of your choosing ?

PostgreSQL tar-format compressed with gzip
Commands to create	pg_dump --format=t dbname | gzip > dbname.tar.gz
Commands to restore	createdb migrated_dbname gunzip migrated.dbname.tar.gz | pg_restore -O -x -d migrated_dbname
Pros and cons	Pros: The header of a PostgreSQL tar-format dump already contains the PostgreSQL version information so, the migration platform will not have to guess the version and restoring your dump will be faster Compressing using gzip method is faster than most other methods Cons: gzip has a compression ratio that is less efficient than xz
PostgreSQL tar-format compressed with xz
Commands to create	pg_dump --format=t dbname | xz > dbname.tar.xz
Commands to restore	createdb migrated_dbname xzcat migrated.dbname.tar.xz | pg_restore -O -x -d migrated_dbname
Pros and cons	Pros: The header of a PostgreSQL tar-format dump already contains the PostgreSQL version information so, the migration platform will not have to guess the version and restoring your dump will be faster xz has a very good compression ratio Cons: Compressing using xz method is slower than most other methods
PostgreSQL custom dump
Commands to create	pg_dump --format=c dbname > dbname.dump
Commands to restore	createdb migrated_dbname pg_restore -O -x -d migrated_dbname < migrated.dbname.dump
Pros and cons	Pros: The header of a PostgreSQL custom dump already contains the PostgreSQL version information so, the migration platform will not have to guess the version and restoring your dump will be faster It's compressed by default but compression is somewhat similar to gzip compression (which is not optimal) Compressing speed is relativelly fast compared to most of the other methods This is the default dump format used by Odoo server. You can use the Odoo web interface to restore a PostgreSQL custom dump Cons: The compression ratio is similar to gzip compression and so, is not the best one if you prefer a small dump file
Plain text SQL
Commands to create	pg_dump -O dbname > dbname.sql
Commands to restore	createdb migrated_dbname psql -d migrated_dbname < migrated.dbname.sql
Pros and cons	Pros: None  Cons: There is no header in a plain text SQL file. Wwe will not be able to determine the PostgreSQL version you are using so, the migration platform will have to guess your PostgreSQL version and restoring your dump will be slower Not compressed. Your database dump file could potentially be huge