Re: PG over NFS - Mailing list pgsql-general

From Tom Lane
Subject Re: PG over NFS
Date
Msg-id 9508.1174959183@sss.pgh.pa.us
Whole thread Raw
In response to Re: PG over NFS  ("Yang" <jkfe7q002@sneakemail.com>)
List pgsql-general
"Yang" <jkfe7q002@sneakemail.com> writes:
> On 3/26/07, Hannes Dorbath light-at-theendofthetunnel.de |postgresql|
>>> However, I am primarily concerned with safety/recoverability (on sudden power loss);
>>
>> Well then.. forget about NFS :)

> Could you offer any explanation as to why?

Basically, the problem with NFS is that it adds new failure modes that
are not present for local storage.  Sure, if all works according to
spec then it's fine, but you're concerned about things going wrong no?

One of the nastier problems that we've seen involved an NFS-mounted DB
where the mount didn't come up till after the postmaster started.
(Searching in the PG archives should uncover that horror story among
others.)  You can prevent some problems by being sure to mount the NFS
server hard not soft, but that's far from being a panacea.

AFAIK these issues are not PG-specific in the slightest, but are a
hazard for any DBMS run atop NFS.

            regards, tom lane

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