The Hermit Hacker <scrappy@hub.org> wrote:
: Odd, I've been using PostgreSQL since v1.x for exactly this same reason,
: and we haven't had any problems with the database crashing since v6.x was
: released. Then again, the radius server opens/closes its connections as
: required, instead of relynig on one persistent connection, so maybe that
: helps, but that's just "application programming" vs backend...
: Also, PostgreSQL is the *key* element to the virtual email system that I
: built around Cyrus IMAPd several months back...if PostgreSQL was "flakey",
: I'd have users losing email left, right and center...basically, *all* mail
: delivery, and user authentication, relies on PostgreSQL being up 24/7
: *period*...and I consider that one to be even more mission critical then
: the accounting system above.
Seems, we are in the same business. :-) But do you never vacuum? Do you never,
ever do something which blocks the database for more than a second or so? I
would never trust any database (not PostgreSQL and not Oracle and not any
other database) to be so reliable, they are just to complex and there are
just too many situations where they would not be reachable or block the
access for too long. An email system I build has nearly 2 million POP accesses
per day. That is more than a thausend authentications per minute (actually the
accesses are not evenly spread around the day, so this is a very rough
calculation). Even if the database is fast enough to handle this, it would
mean that a one minute breakdown of the database, for any reason, would make
1000 customers unhappy. That is not something I could sleep well with...
But coming back to the original question about the reliability of PostgreSQL.
Am I the only one using the "advanced features", like plpgsql procedures,
triggers, rules, etc.? Most of the problems I have encountered lie with these
kind of things and not with basic functionality. If you just use your
PostgreSQL as a kind of Berkeley DB with SQL, you will probabely not have too
many problems. Maybe these parts are tested more thoroughly? Many people seem
to use databases only as a directory service. If most of your accesses to
the database are reading not writing, if you never do any joins, no subselects,
no triggers and no other fancy stuff, then you are not really using the things
a RDBMS is for. And if PostgreSQL is only good enough for this kind of work,
it is not doing its job.
Jochen
--
Jochen Topf - jochen@remote.org - http://www.remote.org/jochen/