Re: Standard replication interface?

On Thu, 2002-08-15 at 09:47, Andrew Sullivan wrote:
> On Wed, Aug 14, 2002 at 10:15:32PM -0500, Greg Copeland wrote:
> > That way, no matter what replication method/tool is being used, as long
> > as it conforms to the defined replication interfaces, generic monitoring
> > tools can be used to keep an eye on things.
>
> That sounds like the cart is before the horse. You need to know what
> sort of replication scheme you might ever have before you could
> know the statistics that you might want to know.

Hmmm. Never heard of an inquiry for interest in a concept as putting
the cart before the horse. Considering this is pretty much how things
get developed in the real world, I'm not sure what you feel is so
special about replication.

First step is always identify the need. I'm attempting to do so. Not
sure what you'd consider the first step to be but I can assure you,
regardless of this concept seeing the light of day, it is the first
step. The horse is correctly positioned in front of the cart.

I also stress that I'm talking about a statistical replication
interface. It occurred to me that you might of been confused on this
matter. That is, a set of tables and views will allow for the
replication process to be uniformly *monitored*. I am not talking about
a set of interfaces which all manner of replication much perform its job
through (interface with databases for replication).

>
> There are different sorts of replication schemes under consideration.

Yep. Thus it would seemingly be ideal to have a specification which
different implementations would seek to implement. Off of the top of my
head and for starters, a table and/or view which could can queried that
returns the tables that are being replicated sounds good to me. Same
thing for the list of databases, the servers involved and their
associated role (master, slave, peer).

Without such a concept, there will be no standardized way to monitor
your replication. As such, chances are one of two things will happen.
One, a single replication method will be championed and fair tools will
develop to support where all others are bastards. Two, quality tools to
monitor replication will never materialize because each method for
monitoring is specific to the different types of implementations.
Resources will constantly be spread amongst a variety of well meaning
projects.

--Greg