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Timescale, an open-source time-series SQL database for PostgreSQL

timescale.com

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Re: Timescale, an open-source time-series SQL database for PostgreSQL

#101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really true. I point whatever thing that talks something like influx to it with the right credentials and it outputs whatever metrics it wants to it. No need to manage/pre-create all your tables for every single possible metric out-there. I seriously dislike nosql databases for most purposes, and am absolutely a Postgres fan - but timeseries is the only thing I've encountered that benefits from a dedicated schema…

How's that any different than something that talks SQL? It's the most universal data language there is. Why do you have to make new tables? It's 1 table with timestamp , name , value to store all your metrics and you can use an array or json column if you have extra non-structured data. Add in the SQL joins and analysis and you get a much better tool for timeseries.

> How's that any different than something that talks SQL? It's the most universal data language there is.

To use SQL you need to know the schema you're working against. Every single tool has to agree on a specific schema - and there are tons of existing tools that push infrastructure/system metrics into timeseries databases. For them it's simple, Influx uses some API, OpenTSDB uses another, Prometheus uses yet another - but they're all pretty simple to use. If you would point them to a Postgres database on the other hand, they wouldn't have a clue what fields to insert.

Re: Timescale, an open-source time-series SQL database for PostgreSQL

#102
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, I see -- so a thing that I'm curious about is, what do you miss about relational databases? Are they mainly aspects on the operational side, or the usability/API side? Ultimately, the question that I'm interested in trying to answer is: would it help if there were more ways to make Spark feel like a traditional relational database? (e.g. being able to interact with the Spark driver using MySQL or Postgres wire pr…

Spark already does a good job at that, imo. It's increasingly easy to query information, at this point we are basically writing SQL-like queries with it. BUT, Spark isn't a relational db, or even a storage solution. What I miss is just having the one piece of technology that deals with both storing and querying: Actual relational databases. It's interesting. 10 years ago I would have probably said something like that…

Have you looked at memsql.com? It's the "better" relational database you're talking about, especially for data warehousing.
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