PostgreSQL Inc. Open Sources Replication Solution

Martin Marvinski writes "PostgreSQL Inc, the commercial company providing replication software and support for PostgreSQL, open sourced their eRServer replication product. This makes PostgreSQL one step closer to being able to replace Oracle as the de facto RDBMS standard. More information can be found on PostgreSQL's website."

Comments

Re:Excellent

[ShieldW0lf]

I've been waiting anxiously for this. Postgres will definately be running my startup now... lack of replication was the only thing holding Postgres back. Wonder how long it will take for this to migrate to debs stable branch...

PostgreSQL fanboy

[realnowhereman]

I can't say a bad thing about postgresql; this was really the only thing I felt the need for. For anyone who hasn't tried it you really should. Although I don't want to start a MySQL v postgresql flamewar, after trying both I think that postgres has the edge. Mysql was undisputably easier to work with and (at the time) was faster. PostgreSQL has moved on at a much faster rate though. In particular postgresql has solid support for transactions, large objects, subselects, object oriented tables. I'm convinced that if you use databases long enough you'll want every last one of these and won't be able to do without.

plPHP

[jdh-22]

They also have been working on a procedual language for PostgreSQL for server side triggers, and functions. Information can be found here, plPHP.

PostgreSQL has made some pretty nice advancements post version 7+, performance and feature wise. I worked on a intranet where the company spent lots of money trying to get an Oracle solution to work, but found it was way to slow. The suggestion of PostgreSQL, and MS SQL came up. We tested PostgreSQL, and it was acutually faster, and easier to maintain then our Oracle database. The best part was, it was free!

Re:Postgre sucks!

[DAldredge]

InnoDB Hot Backup is a tool which allows you to backup a running InnoDB database without setting any locks or disturbing normal database processing. You get a consistent copy of your database, as if the copy were taken at a precise point in time. InnoDB Hot Backup is also the ideal method of setting up new slaves if you use the MySQL replication on InnoDB tables.

For how many server computers you want to order an evaluation copy, or 1-year licenses (390 euros or 450 US dollars each), or perpetual licenses (990 euros or 1150 US dollars each); discounts are available for large volume orders.

This is from http://www.innodb.com/hotbackup.html

OOS vs. Oracle

[Baavgai]

> This makes PostgreSQL one step closer to being able to replace Oracle...

Please! While this may help win the hearts and minds of OOS geeks, it does little to improve their standing in the business world.

Oracle is as established in the database world as Microsoft is on the desktop. This alone would doom any OOS wannabe to quiet places like web server back ends where they already do well anyway ( e.g. mySql ).

Put aside the technical considerations, support, client base, etc and PostgreSQL still offers as much of a threat to Oracle as mySql or dBase. The only real threat I've seen to Oracle supremacy is Microsoft's SQL Server but, of course, that's only in MS shops.

Re:The defacto standard

[sporty]

Yeah, but there are irritants to postgres as well.

No source code packages. You can't create a library, like you would in oracle.

When you have an sql error, it tells you the char it occured at, and not much more. Quite annoying if oyu miss a , in a multiline query and have to paste it back.

You can't network two instances so to speak. You can't say.. "select * from slashdot.messages, freshmeat.list where..." Bloody useful for running remote queries over a dedicated line, w/o dump-replicationg stuff.

Not easy to see, verbatim, what queries are running. Well, nothing i've seen so far. :\

But you know what, I use it, and I like it. 'cuz it doesn't require a java installer and it is simple. But it doesn't hold a light to oracle in some ways :)

Re:Good Thing(tm)

[TechnoVooDooDaddy]

clearly the poster does not understand the intricacies of replication in a real-time environment.

you can not pull the data out of table and stuff it into another table under even a reasonable workload.

but i understand this is slashdot and technical relevance need not necessarily apply.

Re:IANADBA

[BigGerman]

As someone who has been messing with Oracle for more than 10 years, I must say that NOTHING (in commercial or OSS world) comes even close on the high-end hardware you are describing. Properly tuned, humming Oracle database is a work of art.
But it is also true that wast majority of Oracle installations are poorely implemented (due to enourmous and unjustyfiable complexity), Oracle's management software sucked (getting better recently), support far from stellar (telephone support hardly usable), yearly costs are sky-high.
I started looking at PostgreSQL and the more I look the more I like what I see - it is conceptually simple, seems to have adequate performance with large tables, JDBC seems to work well too, stored procedures language is very close to Oracle's (I wish for better exceptions handling), and the whole thing is more than adequate replacement for 80% of Oracle installations I have personally seen.
And I have to add that I tried very hard to like MySQL but it did not work for me.
Everything above is IMHO and the usual disclaimers apply.

Re:The defacto standard

[mrroach]

Not easy to see, verbatim, what queries are running. Well, nothing i've seen so far. :\

Try adding
stats_command_string = true to your postgresql.conf

then, "select * from pg_stat_activity" for a list of users pids and queries

-Mark

Re:The defacto standard

[rtaylor]

I've got good news... PostgreSQL 7.4 beta 2 will reclaim index space and has a vacuum daemon in /contrib (preparation for a built in daemon).

Oracle runs vacuum as well -- it just has a different name. It's what the undo / redo logs are for, to allow MVCC while maintaining an overwriting storage manager.