Q:

Is it possible to make simple postgres dump using replication server?

PostgreSQL 9.6, configured backup server via barman tool. Using WAL streaming (pg_receivexlog) and streaming backup (pg_basebackup).
All working good. However for development/debugging purposes I may need to create simple dump and copy it to localhost to inspect.
On master server I can simply use pg_dump tool. But I don't want to use it under heavy production load. So I was thinking - is there a way to create dump from our backup server?
Only one way I can think about: apply barman recover command to different server (not production), then there create simple dump via pg_dump. That will work, but isn't there a way to ditch intermediate server?

A:

No, you can only run pg_dump against a running PostgreSQL server.
You can avoid the necessity to recover the database whenever you need a pg_dump by setting up a streaming replication hot standby server with max_standby_streaming_delay = -1 and run your pg_dump against that.

