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PostgreSQL 9.4 Released

postgresql.org

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Re: PostgreSQL 9.4 Released

#61

Post by devonnulled »

atonse wrote: post #11

Great news! I'd love to move over to this from MongoDB for a project that has high uptime requirements. But while I think the JSON will really replace it, does PG have a solution for High Availability (like replica sets) in the works? I'm newer to Postgres so am not sure. Replica Sets are the killer feature for me, more so than just storing JSON documents. I'd appreciate if someone can chime in. I've done some googli…

Hey there. I gave a talk at PGConfNYC '14 earlier this year about our solution to HA using open source solutions. The animations and stuff don't really work too well on Slideshare, but it should point you in the right direction:

http://www.slideshare.net/TeamARIN/building-a-high-availabil...

pgSQL doesn't have anything built in for fencing, failing-over, etc. by default, but by using stuff like Pacemaker, you can get the job done with a little elbow grease.

Re: PostgreSQL 9.4 Released

#62

Post by bsg75 »

radicalbyte wrote: post #18

Next year I really need to switch from MSSQL to Postgres. The work that the Postgres team have done in the last 2-3 years is really amazing. They are also clearly reaping the benefits of some very smart architectural decisions, and that gives me the confidence that they will be able to continue innovating in the coming years.

There is actually a lot of overlap in the feature set. When I moved from MSSQL to a gig that was all Postgres it was fairly smooth to do so, the main differences being OS related. Thus you don't need to switch over entirely to add a useful tool to the toolbox.

MSSQL has some advantages in parallel query execution and data warehousing enhancements - if you can afford the licensing for the latter. The other view on that is you can tip up as many Postgres production instances as you have hardware for without impacting the software budget.

Re: PostgreSQL 9.4 Released

#63

Post by bsg75 »

percept wrote: post #49
petercooper wrote: post #45

Are there any good books coming out that cover Postgres 9.4? I know the docs are okay but I want something with more of a narrative structure as my history with Postgres is spotty. The only one I've found so far is O'Reilly's "PostgreSQL: Up and Running, 2nd Edition" coming out this month but would prefer a personal rec.

_Beginning Postgres_, Cooper Press (2015)

Any ISBN or link for that? Google mostly returns old unrelated titles.

Re: PostgreSQL 9.4 Released

#64

Post by rpedela »

joevandyk wrote: post #57
mbell wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It isn't "difficult and annoying" anymore, it used to be before SSD backed EBS and/or provisioned IOPS because you had to RAID0 together a dozen or so magnetic EBS volumes to get decent disk performance and then deal with the annoyance of sorting out a way to take consistent snapshots of the RAID array for backups. Now you can just toss a single 1TB SSD backed EBS volume on an instance and get ~3k iops, or use provis…

That performs decently now? I got scared off using EBS a few years ago and use only the ephemeral storage + failovers.

The SSD EBS claims a default performance of 3 IOPS/GB with a burst of up to 3000 IOPS with a 99% consistency. One of my larger instances uses SSD EBS and so far I am happy with it. In particular, I was very impressed how much faster updating Ubuntu was when I first booted the instance. I am planning to move my Postgres RDS instance to SSD EBS next week. I think (I hope) it will fix a particular stall my application experiences sometimes.

Re: PostgreSQL 9.4 Released

#65

Post by bkeroack »

joevandyk wrote: post #57
mbell wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It isn't "difficult and annoying" anymore, it used to be before SSD backed EBS and/or provisioned IOPS because you had to RAID0 together a dozen or so magnetic EBS volumes to get decent disk performance and then deal with the annoyance of sorting out a way to take consistent snapshots of the RAID array for backups. Now you can just toss a single 1TB SSD backed EBS volume on an instance and get ~3k iops, or use provis…

That performs decently now? I got scared off using EBS a few years ago and use only the ephemeral storage + failovers.

Regardless of whether they're backed by SSD, all EBS volumes on an instance sit behind a 1 Gbps pipe (except for the more exotic and expensive instance types). That's part of the reason why Amazon talks about IOPs instead of raw disk bandwidth.

Go ahead and run:

  $ sudo du -hs /*
..on a vanilla m3.* instance and run iotop in a different session. You'll see bandwidth numbers that 2002 would be embarrassed about.

Re: PostgreSQL 9.4 Released

#66

Post by bkeroack »

gfodor wrote: post #54
bkeroack wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not trying to be mean but, why wait? If you're stuck on AWS it's not impossible (though difficult and annoying certainly) to get a decently-performant Postgres instance going. The experience setting it up will lessen the vendor-lock that Amazon has on you (convenience always has a price).

The answer is simple, as with any AWS service, a whole slew of concerns (but not all of them) become Not My Problem. I have enough problems.

...in exchange for a number of different problems including (in no particular order): severe vendor lock-in, mediocre to acceptable performance, and relatively high cost per unit of performance.

Re: PostgreSQL 9.4 Released

#67

Post by rpedela »

I am pretty happy about the addition of ALTER SYSTEM. I haven't tried it yet, but I think it will make automatic failover to a standby easier to implement. Does anyone have experience with this?

Re: PostgreSQL 9.4 Released

#69

Post by personZ »

bkeroack wrote: post #66
gfodor wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The answer is simple, as with any AWS service, a whole slew of concerns (but not all of them) become Not My Problem. I have enough problems.

...in exchange for a number of different problems including (in no particular order): severe vendor lock-in, mediocre to acceptable performance, and relatively high cost per unit of performance.

I don't personally get the RDS value proposition, but how does it lead to vendor lock-in, much less severe vendor lock-in? I don't believe there is really any lock-in whatsoever -- backup your database and move it wherever you want, whether you're running the pgsql, Mysql, or SQL Server variants of RDS.

Re: PostgreSQL 9.4 Released

#70

Post by bkeroack »

personZ wrote: post #69
bkeroack wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...in exchange for a number of different problems including (in no particular order): severe vendor lock-in, mediocre to acceptable performance, and relatively high cost per unit of performance.

I don't personally get the RDS value proposition, but how does it lead to vendor lock-in, much less severe vendor lock-in? I don't believe there is really any lock-in whatsoever -- backup your database and move it wherever you want, whether you're running the pgsql, Mysql, or SQL Server variants of RDS.

While of course you're correct, it's a bit like saying "you can just pack up your code and run it somewhere else". If the entire architecture and workflow are based around proprietary AWS tools (Elastic Beanstalk, Elastic load balancers, RDS, Cloud Formation, autoscaling, etc) even if your code is technically portable, you're still suffering from vendor lock-in. Arguably worse than the bad old days of the Microsoft monopoly.
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