Thread: which distro, or to build

which distro, or to build

From
David Bear
Date:
I'm getting really mad at RHEL 4. They do not package a recent
postgres in the base distro, and only put 8.1.x in a disk call
lamp-beta... So now I wonder what a 'recommended' way of running
postgresql is -- meaning, any linux distro will do, just build it --
or is there any particular distro that 'does the right thing' with
postgresql... meaning, they package recent versions and keep them
updated with security fixes...

I was using Suse 9.3 . They did a pretty good job -- at least they
included pg 8.0 and kept it updated. RHEL just stinks. I suppose a
I've come to like the way yast keeps packages together, helps resolve
dependancies, etc. I switch to RHEL for 'enterprise' reasons. There is
some central support for it though I have yet to figure out if that
extends beyond just buying a site license for it..

Anyway, I'd appreciate any pointers on which system seems to be best
suited for making life easier for a pg system admin.

btw, I have run pg on FreeBSD as well, and relied on the ports
maintainers to keep things updated. cvsupdate seemed to work
reasonably well for this.

Any advice? use packages.. build.. or ?
--
David Bear
phone:     602-496-0424
fax:     602-496-0955
College of Public Programs/ASU
University Center Rm 622
411 N Central
Phoenix, AZ 85007-0685
 "Beware the IP portfolio, everyone will be suspect of trespassing"

Re: which distro, or to build

From
David Bear
Date:
On Tue, Mar 20, 2007 at 09:06:35PM -0400, Joshua Kramer wrote:
>
> David,
>
> >I'm getting really mad at RHEL 4. They do not package a recent
> >postgres in the base distro, and only put 8.1.x in a disk call
> >lamp-beta... So now I wonder what a 'recommended' way of running
> >postgresql is -- meaning, any linux distro will do, just build it --
>
> Why not just download the RHEL4 packages from the Postgres mirrors?  PG
> runs fine for me in that manner, on CentOS-4 (a RHEL rebuild).

Thought of that and then wondered if I would face the same dependancy
issues that using the rpms from redhat gave me. Do you know if redhat
just redistributed the pg rpms? Or, do these rpms actually include
depndancy resolution? For example, trying to install the rpm from
redhat I get a failed dependance for libpq.so.4 --- but I have no idea
what package redhat would have put libpq in... and so it goes. Where
should I spend time? Tracking down dependancies? Or finding a better
host operating system -- at least one packaged with things the pg
needs.

>
> Cheers,
> -J

--
David Bear
phone:     602-496-0424
fax:     602-496-0955
College of Public Programs/ASU
University Center Rm 622
411 N Central
Phoenix, AZ 85007-0685
 "Beware the IP portfolio, everyone will be suspect of trespassing"

Re: which distro, or to build

From
Joshua Kramer
Date:
David,

> I'm getting really mad at RHEL 4. They do not package a recent
> postgres in the base distro, and only put 8.1.x in a disk call
> lamp-beta... So now I wonder what a 'recommended' way of running
> postgresql is -- meaning, any linux distro will do, just build it --

Why not just download the RHEL4 packages from the Postgres mirrors?  PG
runs fine for me in that manner, on CentOS-4 (a RHEL rebuild).

Cheers,
-J


Re: which distro, or to build

From
Devrim GÜNDÜZ
Date:
Hi,

On Tue, 2007-03-20 at 17:50 -0700, David Bear wrote:
> I'm getting really mad at RHEL 4. They do not package a recent
> postgres in the base distro, and only put 8.1.x in a disk call
> lamp-beta...

This is quite normal. Red Hat "Enterprise Linux" does not apply major
upgrades. For example, RHEL5 ships with PostgreSQL 8.1.8, and it will
stick with PostgreSQL 8.1.X. This is their policy and I like it.

But, for RHEL4, they have an application stack andit has a recent (8.1)
version of PostgreSQL. You can check RHN for this.

If you want to keep more up2date with Red Hat / Fedora / CentOS, you can
use PGDG RPMs that are shipped through PostgreSQL FTP site and its
mirrors. It has almost all PostgreSQL releases for all Red Hat / Fedora
releases (sure, CentOS = Red Hat).

http://www.PostgreSQL.org/ftp/binary

Regards,
--
Devrim GÜNDÜZ
PostgreSQL Replication, Consulting, Custom Development, 24x7 support
Managed Services, Shared and Dedicated Hosting
Co-Authors: plPHP, ODBCng - http://www.commandprompt.com/



Attachment

Re: which distro, or to build

From
Joshua Kramer
Date:
David,

I'm not sure what dependencies the RH-provided PG RPM's have, but I've had
no problems whatsoever installing a series of PG-sourced RPM's from 8.1 on
up to 8.2.3, on CentOS 4 (which is binary-compatible with RHEL4).

Actually, there is one minor glitch; some apps that use PG require an
older version of libpq, but the Postgres website provides a "compat
postgreql libs" for this purpose.

In any case, if you are using the PG-supplied RPM's and you know you're
installing everything, simply run RPM like so:

rpm -i --nodeps postgres-whatever.rpm

I usually use OS-vendor supplied RPMS for things like Apache, except in
cases where the project-supplied RPM's have additional features over and
above the RHEL/CentOS RPM's.  Things like Postgres and Python fall under
this category.

Cheers,
-Josh

On Tue, 20 Mar 2007, David Bear wrote:

> On Tue, Mar 20, 2007 at 09:06:35PM -0400, Joshua Kramer wrote:
>>
>> David,
>>
>>> I'm getting really mad at RHEL 4. They do not package a recent
>>> postgres in the base distro, and only put 8.1.x in a disk call
>>> lamp-beta... So now I wonder what a 'recommended' way of running
>>> postgresql is -- meaning, any linux distro will do, just build it --
>>
>> Why not just download the RHEL4 packages from the Postgres mirrors?  PG
>> runs fine for me in that manner, on CentOS-4 (a RHEL rebuild).
>
> Thought of that and then wondered if I would face the same dependancy
> issues that using the rpms from redhat gave me. Do you know if redhat
> just redistributed the pg rpms? Or, do these rpms actually include
> depndancy resolution? For example, trying to install the rpm from
> redhat I get a failed dependance for libpq.so.4 --- but I have no idea
> what package redhat would have put libpq in... and so it goes. Where
> should I spend time? Tracking down dependancies? Or finding a better
> host operating system -- at least one packaged with things the pg
> needs.
>
>>
>> Cheers,
>> -J
>
> --
> David Bear
> phone:     602-496-0424
> fax:     602-496-0955
> College of Public Programs/ASU
> University Center Rm 622
> 411 N Central
> Phoenix, AZ 85007-0685
> "Beware the IP portfolio, everyone will be suspect of trespassing"
>
>