Thread: PostgreSQL flavors

On 02/23/2016 07:51 AM, Sherrie Kubis wrote:
> Hello, my first post to the list, thank you for this place to ask
> questions and get help.

Welcome.

>
> Our management has tasked me with devising a plan to migrate our
> existing databases from Oracle to PostgreSQL.  I’m researching and
> getting familiar with PostgreSQL before getting a Linux box to start
> learning and staging.  I have a long way to go, but it will be fun.
>
> Out of the gate, I can see different PostgreSQL products – PostgreSQL,
> PostgreSQLPlus, EnterpriseDB Advanced Server.

Well you are looking at the community version
PostgreSQL(http://www.postgresql.org/)  versus versions created by
EnterpriseDB(http://www.enterprisedb.com). EDB has the community version
wrapped in an installer which is free. Its other versions have addons
and are fee based. There are also quite a few other companies that
support Postgres:

http://www.postgresql.org/support/professional_support/northamerica/

>
> For staging I’ll likely start with the vanilla version.  I’ve been
> searching for a comparison of different product sets; I’ve found some
> things, but in other places different information.  There is a lot to
> sift through.  For example, we are now using non-active Data Guard to a
> standby for disaster recovery.  What is the different on this

I would take a look here:

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.5/interactive/backup.html

and here:

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.5/interactive/high-availability.html

in particular:

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.5/interactive/different-replication-solutions.html

Table 25-1

> functionality in the 3 products? Or perhaps there are more products than
> I’ve found.  Cost will be a factor for us, but I also consider that
> costs are not only product and maintenance costs, there are DBA and
> developer migration costs as well.

I would suggest starting with the community version:

http://www.postgresql.org/download/

If you do not want to set up an entire machine, set up a Linux VM and
install Postgres. It will not be the best indication of performance, but
it will allow you to explore the feature set.

>
> Any insights or information is appreciated.

Since you are looking at migrating from Oracle, see here:

http://ora2pg.darold.net/

>
> *********************************************************
>
> Sherrie Kubis
>
> Sr. Oracle DBA
>
> Information Technology Bureau
>
> Southwest Florida Water Management District
>
> 2379 Broad Street
>
> Brooksville, FL 34604-6899
>
> 352.796.7211 x4033
>
> sherrie.kubis@swfwmd.state.fl.us <mailto:steve.dicks@swfwmd.state.fl.us>
>


--
Adrian Klaver
adrian.klaver@aklaver.com

On 02/23/2016 07:51 AM, Sherrie Kubis wrote:
> Hello, my first post to the list, thank you for this place to ask
> questions and get help.
>
> Our management has tasked me with devising a plan to migrate our
> existing databases from Oracle to PostgreSQL.  I’m researching and
> getting familiar with PostgreSQL before getting a Linux box to start
> learning and staging.  I have a long way to go, but it will be fun.
>
> Out of the gate, I can see different PostgreSQL products – PostgreSQL,
> PostgreSQLPlus, EnterpriseDB Advanced Server.

There is only one PostgreSQL.Org database product and that is the Open
Source PostgreSQL. PostgresPlus, and EnterpriseDB Advanced Server are
commercially supported, closed source, enhanced versions. Therefore it
really depends on your needs.

If management wants to avoid vendor lock in and truly reduce costs, I
would recommend the .Org version of PostgreSQL. It allows you the
greatest flexibility in:

  * Cost reduction
  * Features and extensibility
  * Support
    Commercial support is literally available from dozens of vendors.

In short, going from one closed source environment to another closed
source environment doesn't help a proper enterprise ecosystem nearly as
much as investing in a community contributor driven platform.

Sincerely,

Joshua D. Drake

--
Command Prompt, Inc.                  http://the.postgres.company/
                         +1-503-667-4564
PostgreSQL Centered full stack support, consulting and development.
Everyone appreciates your honesty, until you are honest with them.

On 02/23/2016 07:51 AM, Sherrie Kubis wrote:
> Hello, my first post to the list, thank you for this place to ask
> questions and get help.
>
> Our management has tasked me with devising a plan to migrate our
> existing databases from Oracle to PostgreSQL.  I’m researching and
> getting familiar with PostgreSQL before getting a Linux box to start
> learning and staging.  I have a long way to go, but it will be fun.
>
> Out of the gate, I can see different PostgreSQL products – PostgreSQL,
> PostgreSQLPlus, EnterpriseDB Advanced Server.

So here's a quick rundown.  I'm sure I'm forgetting some, but here's a
lot of them.  I've deliberately omitted PostgreSQL forks/versions which
are no longer maintained or not commercially available.

Open Source
-----------

PostgreSQL Plus: EnterpriseDB's distribution of PostgreSQL with extra
open source tools included in the installer.

GreenPlum: fork of PostgreSQL 8.2, designed for large-scale big data,
data mining and analytics.

PostgresXC: beta-quality open source fork designed for small clusters of
transaction-processing, ala Oracle RAC.

PostgresXL: fork of PostgresXC, more stable, and a bit more oriented
towards data analytics.

Stado: Version of PostgreSQL with java middleware to do big-data
scale-out.  At various times called ExtenDB and GridSQL.

BigSQL: PostgreSQL+Hadoop for big data scale-out.

PipelineDB: streaming SQL engine built from PostgreSQL.


Closed Source
-------------

PostgreSQL Plus Advanced Server/EDB Server: EnterpriseDB's fork of
PostgreSQL which has Oracle compatibility and some other tools (like xDB
replication).  Sometimes includes features from future versions of
PostgreSQL

CitusDB: latest/greatest big data scale-out version of PostgreSQL.  Soon
to be open-source.

Aster: prior generation of PostgreSQL MPP and Map/Reduce scale-out.

Hadapt: proprietary PostgreSQL+Hadoop fusion.  Based on HadoopDB, which
was open source.

Paraccel: Column-oriented in-memory cluster database built from
PostgreSQL 8.2.

RedShift: Amazon's fork of Paraccel, available only on AWS as a service.

Vertica: Another PostgreSQL-based column store.  Unclear on how much
PostgreSQL code it uses, but uses a version of the PostgreSQL protocol
and psql client.

FAST: Fujitsu's spin of PostgreSQL, optimized for high performance on
high-end hardware.



--
--
Josh Berkus
Red Hat OSAS
(any opinions are my own)

On 02/23/2016 10:22 AM, Pavel Stehule wrote:
>
> Vertica was written from scratch in C++. Maybe gram.y was used from Pg.
> But the client and SQL are strongly inspirited by Postgres. vsql is not
> psql probably, because psql is better. Last three years is not Vertica
> protocol compatible with Postgres. I don't know a reason why - I am
> expecting some strange marketing

According to some insider sources, they broke compatibility because it
was "faster" (without any actual performance testing).  In an update
release, no less.  I've been told that they lost a bunch of users over
this because it broke their tools with no warning.

--
--
Josh Berkus
Red Hat OSAS
(any opinions are my own)

> On 02/23/2016 07:51 AM, Sherrie Kubis wrote:
>> Hello, my first post to the list, thank you for this place to ask
>> questions and get help.
>>
>> Our management has tasked me with devising a plan to migrate our
>> existing databases from Oracle to PostgreSQL.  I$B!G(Bm researching and
>> getting familiar with PostgreSQL before getting a Linux box to start
>> learning and staging.  I have a long way to go, but it will be fun.
>>
>> Out of the gate, I can see different PostgreSQL products $(Q#|(B PostgreSQL,
>> PostgreSQLPlus, EnterpriseDB Advanced Server.
>
> So here's a quick rundown.  I'm sure I'm forgetting some, but here's a
> lot of them.  I've deliberately omitted PostgreSQL forks/versions
> which are no longer maintained or not commercially available.
>
> Open Source
> -----------
>
> PostgreSQL Plus: EnterpriseDB's distribution of PostgreSQL with extra
> open source tools included in the installer.
>
> GreenPlum: fork of PostgreSQL 8.2, designed for large-scale big data,
> data mining and analytics.
>
> PostgresXC: beta-quality open source fork designed for small clusters
> of transaction-processing, ala Oracle RAC.
>
> PostgresXL: fork of PostgresXC, more stable, and a bit more oriented
> towards data analytics.
>
> Stado: Version of PostgreSQL with java middleware to do big-data
> scale-out.  At various times called ExtenDB and GridSQL.
>
> BigSQL: PostgreSQL+Hadoop for big data scale-out.
>
> PipelineDB: streaming SQL engine built from PostgreSQL.
>
>
> Closed Source
> -------------
>
> PostgreSQL Plus Advanced Server/EDB Server: EnterpriseDB's fork of
> PostgreSQL which has Oracle compatibility and some other tools (like
> xDB replication).  Sometimes includes features from future versions of
> PostgreSQL
>
> CitusDB: latest/greatest big data scale-out version of PostgreSQL.
> Soon to be open-source.
>
> Aster: prior generation of PostgreSQL MPP and Map/Reduce scale-out.
>
> Hadapt: proprietary PostgreSQL+Hadoop fusion.  Based on HadoopDB,
> which was open source.
>
> Paraccel: Column-oriented in-memory cluster database built from
> PostgreSQL 8.2.
>
> RedShift: Amazon's fork of Paraccel, available only on AWS as a
> service.
>
> Vertica: Another PostgreSQL-based column store.  Unclear on how much
> PostgreSQL code it uses, but uses a version of the PostgreSQL protocol
> and psql client.
>
> FAST: Fujitsu's spin of PostgreSQL, optimized for high performance on
> high-end hardware.

PowerGres: Surviving since 2003. Full compatible with PostgreSQL
except "PowerGres plus" which has the transparent database encryption
and the redundant WAL.

Best regards,
--
Tatsuo Ishii
SRA OSS, Inc. Japan
English: http://www.sraoss.co.jp/index_en.php
Japanese:http://www.sraoss.co.jp

On 02/23/2016 04:52 PM, Tatsuo Ishii wrote:
> PowerGres: Surviving since 2003. Full compatible with PostgreSQL
> except "PowerGres plus" which has the transparent database encryption
> and the redundant WAL.

I had no idea PowerGres was still going.

You know I threw out an entire box of PowerGres 7.3 CDs when I moved?
They were in the back of a closet.

--
--
Josh Berkus
Red Hat OSAS
(any opinions are my own)

> I had no idea PowerGres was still going.
>
> You know I threw out an entire box of PowerGres 7.3 CDs when I moved?

PowerGres 7.3! So old days...

> They were in the back of a closet.

Probably I still have a GreatBridge CDs in my house :-)
--
Tatsuo Ishii
SRA OSS, Inc. Japan
English: http://www.sraoss.co.jp/index_en.php
Japanese:http://www.sraoss.co.jp

On 02/23/2016 05:49 PM, Magnus Hagander wrote:
>
> It's Postgres Plus, not PostgreSQL plus.
>
> And AFAIK, it was also retired some time ago and doesn't actually exist
> anymore.

And, I just looked. You are correct.

Wow...

Sad.

JD

--
Command Prompt, Inc.                  http://the.postgres.company/
                         +1-503-667-4564
PostgreSQL Centered full stack support, consulting and development.
Everyone appreciates your honesty, until you are honest with them.