I'm unsure as to whether this question should be posted in the Database Administrators' section or here, so please advise if I got it wrong.
I have a Django-based website which doesn't change much. I use python manage.py dumpdata --all --indent=2 > backup.json and reload the data with loaddata if I need to redeploy or the db gets corrupted. (I'm aware about integrity errors that have occurred when not excluding auth and content_types)
Since I'm using PostgreSQL on the backend, is it "best practise" or "wiser" for me to use pg_dump instead, and then pg_restore if something goes wrong or if I need to redeploy?
So dumpdata dumps all data associated with the selected apps (and/or models), and pg_dump performs a full dump of the db. Is this the same thing or is there a fundamental difference that I've missed (mind you I have 0 experience with DBA)?
Which option do I go for and why?
It is both best practice and wiser for you to use pg_dump instead of dumpdata.
There are many reasons for this.
pg_dump is faster and the output is more compact (particularly with the -Fc option) than with dumpdata.
Importing the data back into the db with pg_restore will also be faster than django's loaddata.
pg_restore is available on any postgresql installation but django and it's dependencies you will have to install.
Last but not least the integrity errors that you spoke of will not happen with pg_dump/pg_restore.
Generally pg_dump is used to dump the entire database however the -t option allows you to dump one or few tables at a time