Re: Two hard drives --- what to do with them?

On 2/26/07, Jeff Davis <pgsql(at)j-davis(dot)com> wrote:
> On Sun, 2007-02-25 at 23:11 +0100, Peter Kovacs wrote:
> > A related question:
> > Is it sufficient to disable write cache only on the disk where pg_xlog
> > is located? Or should write cache be disabled on both disks?
> >
>
> When PostgreSQL does a checkpoint, it thinks the data pages before the
> checkpoint have successfully made it to disk.
>
> If the write cache holds those data pages, and then loses them, there's
> no way for PostgreSQL to recover. So use a battery backed cache or turn
> off the write cache.

Sorry for for not being familar with storage techonologies... Does
"battery" here mean battery in the common sense of the word - some
kind of independent power supply? Shouldn't the disk itself be backed
by a battery? As should the entire storage subsystem?

Thanks
Peter

>
> Regards,
> Jeff Davis
>
>