Re: drupal.org MySQL database issues

On Friday 18 May 2007 10:34, Dave Page wrote:
> Joshua D. Drake wrote:
> > Andrew Sullivan wrote:
> >> On Thu, May 17, 2007 at 05:16:36PM -0400, Jonah H. Harris wrote:
> >>> In this thread, I've seen several people say something to the effect
> >>> of, "why is PostgreSQL harder to use than MySQL?" IMHO, it's
> >>> difficult for us to answer that question because we're all experienced
> >>> with PostgreSQL and have somewhat biased opinions on what it takes to
> >>> administer and manage PostgreSQL compared with other systems.
> >>
> >> I agree, but we do seem to have some people who are saying "MySQL is
> >> easier to use with Cpanel or Plesk than is PostgreSQL." Exactly one
> >> of those people has taken me up on my request to outline _how_ it is
> >> easier. So far, it sounds to me like the main complaint is that
> >> pg_hba.conf is on the filesystem, which makes it hard to use. I
> >> agree with Josh Drake on that one: if that's the _real_ barrier, it
> >> shouldn't be that hard to hack up some module to make it work better.
> >> But I don't know whether that is in fact the problem, and nobody
> >> seems to be confirming or denying that that's the issue.
> >
> > It can be. The problem with Cpanel or Plesk is they assume there is no
> > access to the filesystem by the end user. So it is certainly easier for
> > a Cpanel or Plesk to just use MySQL because MySQL allows all control
> > directly from the database and thus whatever Cpanel or Plesk uses to
> > connect to the database.
> >
> > So enabling pg_hba.conf (and frankly postgresql.conf) to be managed from
> > the DB could be a boon. It would certainly make my life as a DBA easier.
>
> It can be using pgAdmin and the adminpack - there's no reason why
> phpPgAdmin couldn't do that as well. Admittedly it's not an nice API
> that anyone less tightly tied to PostgreSQL would likely want to use.
>

Yeah, we don't use it in phppgadmin because I don't like the api, but it is
very doable. From what I understand the plesk/cpanel people already make
some changes into the systems they take from, so I'm sure thier installer
could be made to set this all up correctly.

> Still, I guess I'm missing something though because if you can't access
> the database because pg_hba.conf is setup incorrectly, how does allowing
> you to edit it through PG help you fix the problem?? Surely the answer
> is for the host/Cpanel to setup sensible defaults at installation or
> database/user creation time?
>

Right... as the op said, when he installed cpanel, he couldn't login via
phppgadmin... clearly this is a case where the initial setup just hasn't been
done very well in the cpanel code, and with a little effort it should be able
to be fixed (other lapp stack type applications have done it), but you've got
to get them to do it.

--
Robert Treat
Build A Brighter LAMP :: Linux Apache {middleware} PostgreSQL