Slashdot Mirror
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."
There is an enormous distance between "viable alternative" and "defacto standard" and the path between them is not paved with features.
You would still have to pay boatloads for support...even with postgres... Open Source does not mean 24/7 Support calls...
Implementing replication at the application layer is about as much fun as implementing table locking at that layer.
While this is a nice step forward, the real reason large sites utilize Oracle is because of synchronous replication.
The replication needs to be able to keep all data consistent across multiple servers, without any conflicts. Then, if a particular server goes down, the DNS can simply fail over to a second server.
Once the above has been achieved, then we have a viable alternative to Oracle.
I like PostgreSQL, and Open Source deserves capitalization, but I'd like to hear an enterprise DBA's perspective on if this really compares to Oracle's configurability, clustering capabilities, or the seamless swapping of redundant database packages when deployed on, say, an EMC 1000, for reliability and failover. BTW, for this request, "enterprise" = Fortune 100, not Joe's Web Hosting.
Like the subject says, I'm not a DBA, but I know some pretty heavy-duty ones that say nothing beats Oracle running on HP Superdomes with EMC storage.
Even though the article is about an improvement in the PostgreSQL community, the comments are mostly pgsql vs mysql. People in the bazaar need to have personal motivations to work on opensource projects, mostly to have something against Microsoft, but increasingly, it is becoming a series of team wars. Linux vs BSD, then we had KDE vs GNOME and now qmail vs postfix and mysql vs pgsql. More than a decade ago we had vi vs emacs and BSD vs SYSV.
What the posters here need to realize is that it is exactly this competition that is driving the projects. If MySQL was not given the press and did not have its cult following, we would not see this pace of development for pgsql. The developments for FreeBSD really improved to compete with Linux although their developers claim they are not competing... they do have the fear Linux will supplant them.
What is interesting to note is that in most of these project wars, both projects really survive and get two different niches of their own. This was true of bash vs csh, BSD vs SYSV, BSD vs Linux, KDE vs GNOME, and now MySQL will become the standard entry level database and pgsql the higher level.
I use pgsql because my databases have complicated requirements that MySQL cannot meet. Yet MySQL is the quick and dirty solution when I have to set things up fast. For all new learners I always suggest MySQL. For people thinking of replacing or duplicating their ERP systems, I always suggest pgsql. I even know how to program in sleepycat's db and know where it should replace mysql in smaller embedded systems and where the mysql license cannot be used.
I believe this competition is coming to a close since pgsql has taken a big lead over MySQL in features, and therefore made itself more difficult to deal with especially for newbies. All I can say about the postgresql replication is bravo, and hope MySQL doesnt follow suit so it remains the simple fast and easy database in its own niche.
"Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you." -Nim Chimpsky
No I don't work for MS, no I'm not in bed with thier marketing department, no I'm not afraid of the command line, etc. I just can't deny that it is a good product. In my opinion the best product MS has ever released, and much cheaper than Oracal.
Granted, I still don't trust MS to be secure, so I never let it be internet facing. To get around that you let the web server be internet facing and only allow connections to the db from that one box. They would have to comprimise you from the inside first, or take control of the web server. And there is nothing stopping you from using Linux and Apache on that web server. We do the same thing with Exchange. I don't like exchange nearly as much as I like MSSQL but the VP's demand it so we just put it behind the firewall and relay all the outbound mail to a Unix-based mailserver in the DMZ.
Unix security on the outside, MS useability on the inside.
Go ahead and flame me now, I'm ready for you.
Sigs are out of style, so I'm not going to use one...oh wait..