Re: Best high availability solution ?

Bruce Momjian wrote:
> Stuart Bishop wrote:
> -- Start of PGP signed section.
>> 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.

Then your boss needs to ante up for a support contract. Replication
won't fix the problem you describe above. The problem you describe above
is lack of planning and resources.

You can find support contracts for reasonable rates from

Command Prompt (us) http://www.commandprompt.com/
Pervasive (them) http://www.pervasive.com/

Sincerely,

Joshua D. Drake

>> 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.
>
> Right. There was a great 1998 article in the Atlantic Monthly about the
> Valujet crash:
>
> http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/98mar/valujet1.htm
>
> Unfortunately that requires a subscription so I pulled a relivant
> paragraph:
>
> http://candle.pha.pa.us/main/valujet
>
> The issue is that reducing risk can increase it, as seen with Valujet,
> Three Mile Island, and Chernobyl.
>

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