Thread: PostgreSQL contra Oracle

PostgreSQL contra Oracle

From
"Kaare Rasmussen"
Date:
While we're talking Oracle... :-)

I attended an Oracle sales talk last week. Well, it was labeled "Technical
information", but that's another story.

I'd like to ask if PostgreSQL has some of the features being promoted.

Log miner. A tool that walks the Undo logs an returns statements to update
with old data. Could be useful for recovering specific table data, Data
Mining etc.
In the PostgreSQL world, it couldn't be dificult to do the same with WAL,
or?

Locator. As I recall, it is a GIS app, written into Oracle. Someone may know
more?

Feature index. Interesting feature from Virage. It indexes LOBs, say a
picture or an videostream. Makes it possible to find closest match.

Fine Grain Audit. Some rules based autit mechanism where you can log e.g.
all access to specific data.

Information Life Cycle Management. A built-in way to degrade data
importance. Maybe you want to move old rows onto cheaper disks, compress
them or so.

Re: PostgreSQL contra Oracle

From
"Dr. Stéphane Schildknecht"
Date:
Kaare Rasmussen wrote:
> While we're talking Oracle... :-)
> I attended an Oracle sales talk last week. Well, it was labeled
> "Technical information", but that's another story.
> I'd like to ask if PostgreSQL has some of the features being promoted.
> Log miner. A tool that walks the Undo logs an returns statements to
> update with old data. Could be useful for recovering specific table
> data, Data Mining etc.
> In the PostgreSQL world, it couldn't be dificult to do the same with
> WAL, or?
> Locator. As I recall, it is a GIS app, written into Oracle. Someone may
> know more?
> Feature index. Interesting feature from Virage. It indexes LOBs, say a
> picture or an videostream. Makes it possible to find closest match.
> Fine Grain Audit. Some rules based autit mechanism where you can log
> e.g. all access to specific data.
> Information Life Cycle Management. A built-in way to degrade data
> importance. Maybe you want to move old rows onto cheaper disks, compress
> them or so.
>
> ---------------------------(end of broadcast)---------------------------
> TIP 2: Don't 'kill -9' the postmaster
Hi all,

Going a little further, does anyone know where I could find some study
dealing with differences between Oracle and PG ?

Thanks by advance

Stéphane

--
Stéphane SCHILDKNECHT
Président de PostgreSQLFr - http://www.postgresqlfr.org
ICQ : 142504394 - Yahoo! : stephanesas - IRC : SAS


Re: PostgreSQL contra Oracle

From
Darcy Buskermolen
Date:
On Monday 31 October 2005 07:22, Kaare Rasmussen wrote:
> While we're talking Oracle... :-)
>
> I attended an Oracle sales talk last week. Well, it was labeled "Technical
> information", but that's another story.
>
> I'd like to ask if PostgreSQL has some of the features being promoted.
>
> Log miner. A tool that walks the Undo logs an returns statements to update
> with old data. Could be useful for recovering specific table data, Data
> Mining etc.
> In the PostgreSQL world, it couldn't be dificult to do the same with WAL,
> or?
>
> Locator. As I recall, it is a GIS app, written into Oracle. Someone may
> know more?

If it's GIS then postgis (http://www.postgis.org) is probably the closest
thing we (being the PostgreSQL community, not the project itself) have to it.

>
> Feature index. Interesting feature from Virage. It indexes LOBs, say a
> picture or an videostream. Makes it possible to find closest match.

This sounds like a form of meta data.  I would think it requires some sort of
middleware to do effectively. But it's not outside of the realm of being
feasible.


>
> Fine Grain Audit. Some rules based autit mechanism where you can log e.g.
> all access to specific data.
>
> Information Life Cycle Management. A built-in way to degrade data
> importance. Maybe you want to move old rows onto cheaper disks, compress
> them or so.

I would think this would be easy to implement with the use of triggers,
tablespaces, partitioning / constraint exclusion and some hefty business
logic rules.

>
> ---------------------------(end of broadcast)---------------------------
> TIP 2: Don't 'kill -9' the postmaster

--
Darcy Buskermolen
Wavefire Technologies Corp.

http://www.wavefire.com
ph: 250.717.0200
fx: 250.763.1759

Re: PostgreSQL contra Oracle

From
Satoshi Nagayasu
Date:
Hi Kaare,

2005/11/1, Kaare Rasmussen <kar@webline.dk>:
> Log miner. A tool that walks the Undo logs an returns statements to update
> with old data. Could be useful for recovering specific table data, Data
> Mining etc.
> In the PostgreSQL world, it couldn't be dificult to do the same with WAL,
> or?

This is very interesting for me.
MySQL's binary log can be used to replicate modifications on the master node.
I think human readable log is important.

> Fine Grain Audit. Some rules based autit mechanism where you can log e.g.
> all access to specific data.

There is no doubt that the audit and security facilities are now top priority
for DBMSes.

--
NAGAYASU Satoshi <snaga@snaga.org>

Re: PostgreSQL contra Oracle

From
elein
Date:
On Mon, Oct 31, 2005 at 11:28:11AM -0800, Darcy Buskermolen wrote:
> On Monday 31 October 2005 07:22, Kaare Rasmussen wrote:
> > While we're talking Oracle... :-)
> >
> > I attended an Oracle sales talk last week. Well, it was labeled "Technical
> > information", but that's another story.
> >
> > I'd like to ask if PostgreSQL has some of the features being promoted.
> >
> > Log miner. A tool that walks the Undo logs an returns statements to update
> > with old data. Could be useful for recovering specific table data, Data
> > Mining etc.
> > In the PostgreSQL world, it couldn't be dificult to do the same with WAL,
> > or?
> >
> > Locator. As I recall, it is a GIS app, written into Oracle. Someone may
> > know more?
>
> If it's GIS then postgis (http://www.postgis.org) is probably the closest
> thing we (being the PostgreSQL community, not the project itself) have to it.
>
You would be surprised what you can do with maps and the built in geometric
types.

> >
> > Feature index. Interesting feature from Virage. It indexes LOBs, say a
> > picture or an videostream. Makes it possible to find closest match.
>
> This sounds like a form of meta data.  I would think it requires some sort of
> middleware to do effectively. But it's not outside of the realm of being
> feasible.
>
>
This is possible by writing a GiST or other index on the data.
> >
> > Fine Grain Audit. Some rules based autit mechanism where you can log e.g.
> > all access to specific data.
> >
> > Information Life Cycle Management. A built-in way to degrade data
> > importance. Maybe you want to move old rows onto cheaper disks, compress
> > them or so.
>
> I would think this would be easy to implement with the use of triggers,
> tablespaces, partitioning / constraint exclusion and some hefty business
> logic rules.
>

The thing to remember is that most things are perfectly and in some cases
easily feasible in postgres because it is extensible.  Need a data type?
Add a new one.  Need to do special processing for a where clause or
a row set?  Write a procedure.  There is very little you cannot do unless
you run into wanting extra SQL syntax for it.  On the other hand, I've
seen some, ahum, misguided extensions as well.

Elein
============================================================
elein@varlena.com        Varlena, LLC        www.varlena.com

          PostgreSQL Consulting, Support & Training

PostgreSQL General Bits   http://www.varlena.com/GeneralBits/
=============================================================
I have always depended on the [QA] of strangers.


> >
> > ---------------------------(end of broadcast)---------------------------
> > TIP 2: Don't 'kill -9' the postmaster
>
> --
> Darcy Buskermolen
> Wavefire Technologies Corp.
>
> http://www.wavefire.com
> ph: 250.717.0200
> fx: 250.763.1759
>
> ---------------------------(end of broadcast)---------------------------
> TIP 5: don't forget to increase your free space map settings
>

Re: PostgreSQL contra Oracle

From
Kaare Rasmussen
Date:
> You would be surprised what you can do with maps and the built in geometric
> types.

As in "calculate distance between two objects" on a map? The objects have to
follow the roads.

> This is possible by writing a GiST or other index on the data.

Well, I don't know offhand how to do it. My guess would be that you'd need
more knowledge about the LOB type and how to compare them to each other.

It's not something I need. It would be fun to play with, OTOH. Let PostgreSQL
decide which of the children looks the most like their mother or father :-)

--

Med venlig hilsen
Kaare Rasmussen, Jasonic

Jasonic                 Telefon: +45 3816 2582
Nordre Fasanvej 12
2000 Frederiksberg      Email: kaare@jasonic.dk

Re: PostgreSQL contra Oracle

From
"Andrew Hammond"
Date:
Not complete, and always a little out of date, but this is the best
comparison between databases I've seen.

http://troels.arvin.dk/db/rdbms/