Thread: PostgreSQL on tablet grade SSD ?

Hi !

Can anyone share any experiences with running PostgreSQL on a
tablet ?  (Surface Pro 3, ASUS Transformer)

(or point to things I should read, searching the web didn't
 turn up anything that seemed relevant to *tablets*)

Thanks,
Karsten
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On Thu, Oct 30, 2014 at 4:30 AM, Karsten Hilbert
<Karsten.Hilbert@gmx.net> wrote:
> Hi !
>
> Can anyone share any experiences with running PostgreSQL on a
> tablet ?  (Surface Pro 3, ASUS Transformer)
>
> (or point to things I should read, searching the web didn't
>  turn up anything that seemed relevant to *tablets*)

I can't speak to tablets specifically.  But there is danger running
postgres on 'cheap' SSD: they are not designed to accommodate a lot of
write activity.  This means you typically have some or all of the
following issues:

*) non durable writes
*) extremely slow fsync times
*) very rapid media wear

I would probably want to mount the database volume on external storage.

merlin

On 10/31/2014 7:31 AM, Merlin Moncure wrote:
>
>
> Can anyone share any experiences with running PostgreSQL on a
> tablet ?  (Surface Pro 3, ASUS Transformer)
>

The SSD in a modern tablet is considerably faster than a hard drive in a
high-end server from the era when PG was originally developed so from a
performance perspective there's no problem (provided your expectations
of overall performance are realistic). The Surface 3 Pro in particular
has a pretty high performance SSD. Other tablets may use lower
performing devices so YMMV. I have PG installed on my Surface 3 for
development purposes fwiw.

As others have said, watch out for durability issues with SSDs that are
not explicitly specified for server/"enterprise" use, although in a
tablet where there is a local battery backup power source these concerns
may be not too relevant. Probably not wise to run a bank on a tablet
though...