Re: Probably been asked a hundred times before.

On 2008-06-24 16:30, David Siebert wrote:
> Which disto is best for running a Postgres server?

I'd go for CentOS 5.2 (or better RedHat Enterprise Linux 5.2, if you can
afford it, as $349/year for basic support can save you several hours of
problem solving).

But by default CentOS5/RHEL5 have PostgreSQL 8.1, so I'd configure an
official Postgresql 8.3 yum repository:
http://yum.pgsqlrpms.org/howtoyum.php

I'd get:

- automatic OS bug fixes up until Sep 30, 2010;

- automatic OS security updates and mission critical bug fixes up until
Mar 31, 2014;

- automatic PostgreSQL security and bug fixes while 8.3 branch is supported;

- additional OS security protection from SElinux;

- Tom Lane, the most active developer, works for RedHat ;-)

> It isn't that big of a hassle but I noticed that almost none of the
> big distros keep all that up to date with Postgres as far as what
> they have in their repositories.

It is not possible to keep up for enterprise grade distros. A major
PostgreSQL version is released every year, compared to 2-3 years between
enterprise grade major distro release. A distro can not do a major
upgrade of PostgreSQL as its major versions data storage formats are not
compatible.

I'd stay away from not enterprise grade distros like Fedora, as a 1 year
support lifetime is much too low. It is good for your home computer but
not for a server.

Regards
Tometzky
--
...although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a
moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you
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Winnie the Pooh