Re: how good is PostgreSQL

a) Don't log to a database. Log data should be sent into a process
that collects any needed on-the-fly statistics and then outputs
into disk files (rotating hourly or daily depending on your needs).
This model is becoming pretty standard with Apache now; look at
rotatelog in the Apache distribution for an example.

b) Number of records isn't really the issue. Query complexity and
number of queries are more pertinent. Generally, for example, a
single SELECT that pulls in multiple rows is much faster than
a bunch of small SELECTs.

c) For very high traffic, you are going to have multiple front-end
servers. If you design the system carefully, you can have a single
shared network disk used by all of your front ends, then just stack
boxes in front of it. This doesn't give you endless scalability,
though;
at some point you'll saturate your network file server and/or
database
box.

d) PHP may not be a great choice. It doesn't provide a lot of hooks
for effective caching of database connections and/or results.
mod_perl or Java servlets may be better, depending on the details.

- Tim Kientzle

Arnold Gamboa wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> For users of large PostgreSQL and PostgreSQL builders, this is for you.
>
> I'm having a terrible time deciding now. :(
>
> We're about to build a "huge" website now. I got tied up in signing the
> contract without really getting enough information about PgSQL since this
> what we plan to implement with PHP (normally we use mySQL but i guess it
> does not fit for huge databases like that).
>
> Here's my problem.. We're about to build a site like hitbox.com where there
> is a large amount of database required.. If say there is 100,000 users with
> 1000 page hits per day for each, and everything will be logged, you could
> imagine how huge this will be. I'm just so "nervous" (really, that's the
> term) if we implement this and later on experience a slow down or worse than
> that, crash in the server.
>
> My questions are:
> 1. What is the limit for number of records in a table WITHOUT SUFFERING SLOW
> DOWN.
> 2. ....limit in number of tables per database
> 3. ... limit in number of database.
>
> Thanks for you comments. I would really appreciate every comment that I'll
> receive regarding this.
>
> Arnold