Thread: deployment query

Nagalingam, Karthikeyan <KARTHIKEYAN.Nagalingam@netapp.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>     we are in the process of finding the best solution for Postgresql
> deployment with storage controller. I have some query, Please give
> some suggestion for the below
>

Doesn't Network Appliance have anyone who could help you with this?
This is the third time you've asked a set of incredibly broad general
questions of this list, that level of information shopping would perhaps
be best answered by a consulting service you would hire to do the task.
An email list is more useful for answering specific questions, but can't
really offer such broad advice given so little information.

"storage controller' could mean anything from a simple SATA port on a
desktop PC, to a EMC Symmetrix SAN, but we can guess based on your email
address, you're specifically interested in NAS storage like Network
Appliance Filers.

"Customer Deployment Scenarios" ?!?
    1) Install postgres.
    2) Create database schema.
    3) Deploy application(s).

Protocol?  I'd venture a guess that the vast majority of postgres
installations have direct attached JBOD or simple raid storage.

What kind of application?   Any application requiring a relational
database, ranging from web applications to accounting systems to
manufacturing execution systems.

I don't even know what to make of your questions 4 and 5.

Thanks for your reply john.


Regards
Karthikeyan.N


-----Original Message-----
From: John R Pierce [mailto:pierce@hogranch.com]
Sent: Monday, March 16, 2009 11:08 PM
To: Nagalingam, Karthikeyan
Cc: pgsql-general@postgresql.org
Subject: Re: [GENERAL] deployment query

Nagalingam, Karthikeyan <KARTHIKEYAN.Nagalingam@netapp.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>     we are in the process of finding the best solution for Postgresql
> deployment with storage controller. I have some query, Please give
> some suggestion for the below
>

Doesn't Network Appliance have anyone who could help you with this?

This is the third time you've asked a set of incredibly broad general
questions of this list, that level of information shopping would perhaps
be best answered by a consulting service you would hire to do the task.

An email list is more useful for answering specific questions, but can't
really offer such broad advice given so little information.

"storage controller' could mean anything from a simple SATA port on a
desktop PC, to a EMC Symmetrix SAN, but we can guess based on your email
address, you're specifically interested in NAS storage like Network
Appliance Filers.

"Customer Deployment Scenarios" ?!?
    1) Install postgres.
    2) Create database schema.
    3) Deploy application(s).

Protocol?  I'd venture a guess that the vast majority of postgres
installations have direct attached JBOD or simple raid storage.

What kind of application?   Any application requiring a relational
database, ranging from web applications to accounting systems to
manufacturing execution systems.

I don't even know what to make of your questions 4 and 5.

On Mon, Mar 16, 2009 at 1:00 AM, Nagalingam, Karthikeyan
<KARTHIKEYAN.Nagalingam@netapp.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>     we are in the process of finding the best solution for Postgresql
> deployment with storage controller. I have some query, Please give some
> suggestion for the below
>
> 1) Can we get customer deployment scenarios for postgresql with storage
> controller. Any flow diagram, operation diagram and implementation diagram
> are welcome.

Like John said, install, initdb, configure postgresql.conf and
pg_hba.conf, load dbs and go.  Whether or not it's on a storage
controller is kind of not that big of a deal, as long as it's
reliable.

> 2) Which protocol is mostly used in production. [NFS,ISCSi,FCP,etc...]

If I can, I almost always build databases on DAS.  If I must use
something else, I'd lean towards iSCSI.  Don't trust NFS for
databases.

> 3) What kind of application Mostly used with Postgresql.

All kinds.  We mostly use it for Content Management where I work. Last
place I worked it was our primary database for RT (ticketing system),
bugzilla, media wiki, our statistical monitoring db, etc.  Our primary
lifting db was oracle, not because oracle was better, but because the
VC vultures wouldn't sign off on postgresql out of ignorance /
prejudice / lack of basic understanding / you name it.

> 4) What is the business and technical issues for Postgresql with storage
> controller at present stage.

Not sure what you're asking here.  Right now most postgresql
installations are on direct attached storage.  The biggest issues
affecting any deployment to remote storage are the ones having to do
with the OS postgresql is most often deployed on, Linux.  Device
drivers, iSCSI drivers, things like that.

I would think that if you wanted more traction for pgsql (or other
dbs) on netapp under linux, you could look at this area.

> 5) In which area Postgresql most wanted.

Got me.

> 6) What kind of DR solution customer using for Postgresql with storage
> controller.

First rule of communications, define your acronyms.  What's DR?

Nagalingam, Karthikeyan wrote:
> Hi,
>     we are in the process of finding the best solution for Postgresql
> deployment with storage controller. I have some query, Please give some
> suggestion for the below
>
> 1) Can we get customer deployment scenarios for postgresql with storage
> controller. Any flow diagram, operation diagram and implementation
> diagram are welcome.

well deployment is the same as for deploying it to plain old direct
attached storage - so all the docs available on www.postgresql.org are
more or less valid for this.

>
> 2) Which protocol is mostly used in production. [NFS,ISCSi,FCP,etc...]

all of those are used - however NFS is quite often discouraged due to
various reliability issues (mostly on the client side) and operational
complexity that caused issues in the past. ISCSI and Fiberchannel
deployments (both on netapp based storage and others) have worked very
well for me.


>
> 3) What kind of application Mostly used with Postgresql.

that is an extremely broad question - in doubt it is always "the
application the customer uses".

>
> 4) What is the business and technical issues for Postgresql with storage
> controller at present stage.

not sure what a business issue would be here - but as for technical
issues postgresql is comparable to the demands of other (commercial)
databases in that regard. I personally found general tuning guidelines
for storage arrays that got written for oracle to be pretty well
suitable(within limits obviously) for postgresql too.

>
> 5) In which area Postgresql most wanted.

it's the customer that counts :)

>
> 6) What kind of DR solution customer using for Postgresql with storage
> controller.

not sure what the question here is - maybe you can explain that in more
detail?


Stefan

Thanks Stefan for all your answers. My last question is "What is the
Mostly used Disaster Recovery Solution for Postgresql in storage
environment."

Regards
Karthikeyan.N


-----Original Message-----
From: Stefan Kaltenbrunner [mailto:stefan@kaltenbrunner.cc]
Sent: Tuesday, March 17, 2009 1:53 AM
To: Nagalingam, Karthikeyan
Cc: pgsql-general@postgresql.org
Subject: Re: [GENERAL] deployment query

Nagalingam, Karthikeyan wrote:
> Hi,
>     we are in the process of finding the best solution for Postgresql
> deployment with storage controller. I have some query, Please give
> some suggestion for the below
>
> 1) Can we get customer deployment scenarios for postgresql with
> storage controller. Any flow diagram, operation diagram and
> implementation diagram are welcome.

well deployment is the same as for deploying it to plain old direct
attached storage - so all the docs available on www.postgresql.org are
more or less valid for this.

>
> 2) Which protocol is mostly used in production. [NFS,ISCSi,FCP,etc...]

all of those are used - however NFS is quite often discouraged due to
various reliability issues (mostly on the client side) and operational
complexity that caused issues in the past. ISCSI and Fiberchannel
deployments (both on netapp based storage and others) have worked very
well for me.


>
> 3) What kind of application Mostly used with Postgresql.

that is an extremely broad question - in doubt it is always "the
application the customer uses".

>
> 4) What is the business and technical issues for Postgresql with
> storage controller at present stage.

not sure what a business issue would be here - but as for technical
issues postgresql is comparable to the demands of other (commercial)
databases in that regard. I personally found general tuning guidelines
for storage arrays that got written for oracle to be pretty well
suitable(within limits obviously) for postgresql too.

>
> 5) In which area Postgresql most wanted.

it's the customer that counts :)

>
> 6) What kind of DR solution customer using for Postgresql with storage

> controller.

not sure what the question here is - maybe you can explain that in more
detail?


Stefan

On Mon, Mar 16, 2009 at 11:15 PM, Nagalingam, Karthikeyan
<KARTHIKEYAN.Nagalingam@netapp.com> wrote:
> Thanks Stefan for all your answers. My last question is "What is the
> Mostly used Disaster Recovery Solution for Postgresql in storage
> environment."

We use two methods of backup to keep the database afloat amid things
going horribly wrong.  We have 1 or more slony backup dbs that allow
for failover and load balancing.  We have offsite pg_dump backups
which are transferred via ssh to an offsite server in case of
catastrophic failure in the data center (like a huge power surge) that
kills both servers.

We routinely restore backup sets or parts of them for various testing scenarios.

On Tue, 2009-03-17 at 10:45 +0530, Nagalingam, Karthikeyan wrote:
> Thanks Stefan for all your answers. My last question is "What is the
> Mostly used Disaster Recovery Solution for Postgresql in storage
> environment."

That vastly depends. The most common is likely warm standby (PITR). If
you are running Linux DRBD is a common solution as well. There is also
Slony-I, and Mammoth Replicator.

Joshua D. Drake

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