> In fact, waiting for reply from standby server before acknowledging a commit
> to the client is a bit pointless otherwise. It puts you in a strange
> situation, where you're waiting for the commits in normal operation, but if
> there's a network glitch or the standby goes down, you're willing to go
> ahead without it. You get a high guarantee that your data is up-to-date in
> the standby, except when it isn't. Which isn't much of a guarantee.
It protects you against a catastrophic loss of the primary, which is a
non-trivial consideration. At the risk of being ghoulish, imagine
that you are a large financial company headquartered in the world
trade center.
...Robert