Re: Best high availability solution ?

Arnaud Lesauvage wrote:
> Hi list !
>
> I have a small enterprise network (~15 workstations, 1 server), all
> running windows OSes. Most of our work is done on a PostgreSQL DB (on
> the windows server).
> I am the only IT here, and my boss asked me to find a way to have the
> database always online, without my intervention.
> Last time I went on vacation, the server crashed and no one was able to
> repair it.

If your application is normally reliable, I think the best, cheapest and
simplest way of keeping the system online when you are on leave is to give
your work the phone number of a company offering PostgreSQL support
services. I would avoid adding the extra complexity and additional support
and maintenance burdens unless you really need it - can work afford to be
without the system for a day if it crashes? And do you expect it to happen
infrequently enough that the outages will not be a problem? The advantage of
having a human available to restore functionality is that they will be able
to deal with the situations you haven't thought of, whereas an automated
solution will likely only deal with the situations you have thought of as
well as making the system more complex, thus creating more things that could
go wrong.

--
Stuart Bishop <stuart(at)stuartbishop(dot)net>
http://www.stuartbishop.net/