EC2 - How to correctly back up PostgreSQL data?
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Here is the setup: 1 small Amazon Linux (EBS-backed) EC2 instance with 3 additional volumes. This is both a web server and database server. One volume for code, one for the PostgreSQL (8.4) data directory, and one volume to store WAL files from PostgreSQL.

(1) The volume with WAL files will also have a base backup of the data directory, which is copied over after doing a pg_start_backup(). Then it will store the continuous archive output from PostgreSQL (WAL files). To snapshot this volume, is there any point in issuing a sync and freezing the filesystem (using xfs_freeze if it's XFS or dmsetup if it's EXT4)? Or can I just take a live snapshot? WAL files will be shipping at a rate of one per minute. Is it possible that a snapshot could be initiated while a single WAL file is being copied over and resulting in corrupt data?

(2) The volume that contains the live PostgreSQL data directory will also be backed up for good measure (daily). Before doing a snapshot of this volume, I issue a pg_dump and the resulting SQL file is kept in the data directory. Is there any point in taking precautions to ensure the actual database data is consistent? Would it be correct to assume that taking a live snapshot will properly (a) backup config files (postgresql.conf, pg_hba.conf, pg_ident.conf) and (b) backup the SQL dump file. Backing up those two things, sql dump file and config files, would be the main point of snapshotting this volume. The DB is not very big so I don't mind the fact that data files will bloat this snapshot. And in that case, I can just do a live snapshot -- correct?

(2a) Would it just be better to keep the data directory on the root volume, and have a backup script that copies the sql dump file as well as config files onto another volume, and snapshot that volume once the copy is done?

(3) As for the volume with code on it, again is there any point in sync'ing and freezing the filesystem? Or can just a live snapshot be taken? This data should be fairly "static".

(4) Is this a solid backup scheme? The root volume is not backed up on a regular basis since I will just keep a machine image after it is set up and configured.

Thanks