I gave PostGreSQL a try. I consider myself a very experienced database developer and DBA. I've use Oracle (not the i versions), MS SQL Server versions 6.5, 7, and 2000, Informix, and Interbase and Phoenix. Interbase is great as an embedded database, and it has all the necessary features, but according to all the literature I can find it including the Phoenix online docs it doesn't support more than 100 megs or so of RAM. For an enterprise-level database, that's a joke. Phoenix ODBC drivers are a bit dicy. The one provided by Phoenix doesn't handle text fields at all. We tested a VB application, and attempting to view a text (that's a blob type, not a varchar) field using that driver caused an immediate crash, every time.
I thought PostGreSQL was the answer, but I find a couple of problems. Through the ODBC driver there's no way to prepare an SQL statement. Doesn't sound like a big deal, but that means I can't build libraries with all the intelligence I like. The bigger deal is reliability. I had a Delphi application that I was using to move data from local tables to my server. On some tables- always the same ones, and never others- after about 1,000 records I would start getting data errors. When I looked at the PostGreSQL Logs, something in the process was changing the characters. I had a log on the client of what was sent, and a log inside PostGreSQL of what the database got, and they didn't match. I ran this at least a dozen times, and it was repeatable.
So I've been exploring SAP. One of my requirement is that I be able to access the database either from Linux or Windows using ODBC. I can't run ODBC using the current server download on SUSE 8.0 or Redhat 7.2 from ODBC on the same machine, but I'm told that SUSE 7.3 works. From reading the logs it appears to be a glibc version incompatibility. Next week I hope to have a SUSE 7.3 machine built to test that. If it does, I plan to burn some incense to the database gods in thanks and appreciation of SAP, because I think it is going to answer all my prayers.
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I gave PostGreSQL a try. I consider myself a very experienced database developer and DBA. I've use Oracle (not the i versions), MS SQL Server versions 6.5, 7, and 2000, Informix, and Interbase and Phoenix. Interbase is great as an embedded database, and it has all the necessary features, but according to all the literature I can find it including the Phoenix online docs it doesn't support more than 100 megs or so of RAM. For an enterprise-level database, that's a joke. Phoenix ODBC drivers are a bit dicy. The one provided by Phoenix doesn't handle text fields at all. We tested a VB application, and attempting to view a text (that's a blob type, not a varchar) field using that driver caused an immediate crash, every time. I thought PostGreSQL was the answer, but I find a couple of problems. Through the ODBC driver there's no way to prepare an SQL statement. Doesn't sound like a big deal, but that means I can't build libraries with all the intelligence I like. The bigger deal is reliability. I had a Delphi application that I was using to move data from local tables to my server. On some tables- always the same ones, and never others- after about 1,000 records I would start getting data errors. When I looked at the PostGreSQL Logs, something in the process was changing the characters. I had a log on the client of what was sent, and a log inside PostGreSQL of what the database got, and they didn't match. I ran this at least a dozen times, and it was repeatable. So I've been exploring SAP. One of my requirement is that I be able to access the database either from Linux or Windows using ODBC. I can't run ODBC using the current server download on SUSE 8.0 or Redhat 7.2 from ODBC on the same machine, but I'm told that SUSE 7.3 works. From reading the logs it appears to be a glibc version incompatibility. Next week I hope to have a SUSE 7.3 machine built to test that. If it does, I plan to burn some incense to the database gods in thanks and appreciation of SAP, because I think it is going to answer all my prayers.