Jeff,
> so after a week of engineering and futzing we had things under control..
> (db changes, massive app changes (agressive caching))
>
> Yes it was horrid to throw out RI (which caused some minor issues
> later) but when the business is riding on it.. you make it work any way
> you can. In a perfect world I would have done it another way, but when
> the site is down (read: your business is not running, you are losing large
> amounts of money) you need to put on your fire fighter suit, not your lab
> coat.
Actually, I'd say this is a great example of what I'm advocating. You
started out with a "correct" design, from an RDBMS perspective, and
compromised on it only when the performance issues became insurmountable.
That sounds like a good approach to me.
--
-Josh Berkus
Aglio Database Solutions
San Francisco