Replication Test Servers

As various people have already noted, IBM has set up some servers that will allow us to test software for robustness and performance and have kindly donated those to us for project use. Thanks very much to Mark Wong for arranging that as well as various IBM folk for assistance.

The general plan is for Rob Haas to get access to one server for performance testing, while I have access to 3 smaller virtual servers for testing replication. It's a pretty rough plan as yet and full access is still being fully configured.

This is good because it will allow us access right at the start of PostgreSQL 9.3 development cycle.

I'll post again when we've finished the 9.2 CommitFest and have had the chance to set these up in a useful way.

R is for Innovation

I'm pleased to note that Teradata just announced a plugin for the R language.

As many of you will know, PostgreSQL has supported server functions written in the R language for many years. So its good that Teradata has seen the light at last and by doing so has validated the innovations that PostgreSQL has made.

That means the list of databases that have responded directly to innovations in PostgreSQL, now extends to Oracle, Informix(Illustra), SQLServer, Sybase, DB2, Teradata. Of course, MySQL have been trying to catch up for a long time,

That pretty much is the complete set. Cool. Well, almost.

I'm intrigued as to what NoSQL vendors think will happen next. If their core values are simplicity then what new features can they add without going back on their core philosophy. Austerity isn't something you can have more of, is it? Let's wait and see what happens when the VC runs out.

PostgreSQL really is in a leadership position with regards to database innovation. And I'm happier than ever to be part of this phenomenon.

Cascading Replication

Cascading Replication is now part of PostgreSQL 9.2, thanks to Fujii Masao.

The idea is that a streaming replication standby can also stream data onto other standbys. This allows a complex network of interrelated servers to fulfil the roles of High Availability, High Durability, Distributed data access capacity and Reporting requirements.

You can set up chained configurations like A -> B -> C.

or more complex arrangements like
......A
....B....E
..C.D...F.G

This should make it much easier to reduce bandwidth for intercontinental replication.

Nice thing is that Hot Standby feedback works across the whole cluster, so you easily manage the interrelationships between servers.

CHAR(11) Conference Success

Finally recovered from attending CHAR(11) in Cambridge, UK. 2 complete days of Clustering, High Availability and Replication talks from various experts.

We had 15 talks from 14 speakers from US, Japan and from 8 European countries, including the keynote from Jan Wieck. Attendees came from US and all across Europe, many of whom could give detailed talks themselves. There's always next year...

The most amazing thing were the comments we received from attendees. Every talk was packed solid, and judging by the seats alone it seems almost everybody went to all the talks - for the whole talk. I don't recall a conference having such a good attendee rate, not even CHAR(10) last year.

Based on that, it looks pretty certain that we'll run CHAR(12) next year. We did discuss Japan for CHAR(12) but that's not going to be as easy as we'd hoped. Let's see how that goes.

I'm pleased with how everything ran, so a big thanks to the organising team.

Thanks very much to Koichi Suzuki for visiting again. The panel discussion between Postgres-XC, MGRID and Greenplum was very enlightening.

Thanks to all the speakers and attendees also.