Re: PostgreSQL alternative to "Oracle Real Application - Mailing list pgsql-general

PLEASE NOTE -

I worked at EDS for a while managing UNIX boxes on the front line.
Oracle, even with clustering, did not always fail over or work properly.
Many times it had to be manually failed over because the database didn't
detect that one was down.  In other cases, the drivers were hosed and we
had to restart the entire application (on ~80 different boxes) to get them
to point to the new live target.

Don't believe the hype.  It's just that - hype.  It's better than nothing,
but certainly not "unbreakable".

Jon

On 18 Jun 2003, Ron Johnson wrote:

> On Wed, 2003-06-18 at 05:19, Hubert Fr�hlich wrote:
> > Hello list
> >
> > I am working with PostgreSQL for the Bavarian Cadastral Administration.
> > We want to update our WWW online services so that they can use more
> > data. For that reason we want to set up an archive of geographical data
> > (ca. 400GB vector data and - maybe also 4 TB of raster data) manily used
> > for http services, i.e. the focus is on read operations. (although we
> > have to do also some kind of replication from primary storage ) The
> > system should be highly performant  and highly available. The use is
> > designed mainly for OpenGIS standardized WWW applications on
> > geographical data such as UMN MapServer ( > several 100000 web hits for
> > geographical data alone). Yet it is not quite clear if we put the raster
> > data simply in a file system or (as BLOBs) into a database.
> >
> > We use a lot of OpenSource software, not only PostgreSQL. Using
> > OpenSource software is a major column of our IT strategy.
> >
> > Now we have got a proposal for hard- and software for this machine which
> > is based mainly on the concept of the "Oracle Real Application Cluster"
> > on RedHat Linux boxes & file servers.
> > The concept is said to offer big performance - but this concept does not
> > fit into our IT strategy very well. We are a bit cautious concerning
> > promises, as Oracle Real Application Cluster seems to be some kind of
> > "black box" and we do not know HOW it really works.
> >
> > What we would like to have is some alternative concept which allows us
> > to use PostgreSQL on a powerful hardware to get highly performant and
> > higly available database access on our terabytes.
> >
> > a) Does PostgreSQL have some features using a clustered hardware?
> > b) If no, what could be an alternative hardware concept ?
>
> You'll only be able to run 1 postmaster at a time, but in order
> to only need one copy of the database and the raster data, maybe
> the GlobalFileSystem would satisfy some or all of your needs.
>
> Commercial version:
> http://www.sistina.com/products_gfs.htm
>
> OSS version:
> http://opengfs.sourceforge.net/
>
> Any "non-database" files could still be accessed by multiple web
> servers.
>
> --
> +-----------------------------------------------------------+
> | Ron Johnson, Jr.     Home: ron.l.johnson@cox.net          |
> | Jefferson, LA  USA   http://members.cox.net/ron.l.johnson |
> |                                                           |
> | "Oh, great altar of passive entertainment, bestow upon me |
> |  thy discordant images at such speed as to render linear  |
> |  thought impossible" (Calvin, regarding TV)               |
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