Postgres and Open Source Experts

Anytime. Anywhere. Since 1997.

Blog

FK, CHECK, ENUM or DOMAIN. That is the question.

We have a customer that recently asked me to comment on which I would use for a particular problem. This is a simple validating lookup. For example, CHECK(VALUE IN ('foo','bar')). Should we use a CHECK constraint, FK, ENUM or DOMAIN?

A CHECK constraint is easy to apply and has simple syntax. It is also extremely flexible in solving other types of validating problems. If your valid values change you must …

Replicator meeting log for 01-08-09 is up

The PostgreSQL + Replicator meeting logs for 01-08-09 are up. This was a long meeting held on #replicator using the Freenode IRC service. Topics covered were the removal of the Single Point of Failure of the MCP which is partially done. The new in the PostgreSQL backend forwarder works but now the question is how to safely handle failover. Take a look, maybe you have an idea.

PostgreSQL Conference / PgCon.US update

In an attempt to ensure the continued positive growth of the community, PostgreSQL Conference, U.S. is going to change its current policy toward the domain PgCon.US. The current policy is that the domain would only be used in lieu of http://www.postgresqlconference.org/ when space was significantly to display the long URL was significantly limited. The new policy will be that PgCon.US will not be used. I would encourage any and all …

PITRTools: Multiple slave support

I gave a lightning talk at Pg Conference: West 08 about a tool that I have developed call PITRTools. PITRTools is a python based log shipping utility. Essentially it wraps itself around standard tools such as rsync, and pg_standby to provide a usable experience. Some of the features is provides are:
  • Auto initialization of environment
  • Simple base backups
  • Monitoring of Master
  • Arbitrary alerts
  • Failover
  • Failover actions
  • etc...
In all it …

PostgreSQL Replicator Update 01.06.09

I know it appears that it has been pretty quiet since we open sourced Replicator but that isn't the case. We have been actively working on 1.9 and fixing 1.8 Beta as bug reports have come in, including a bug to sequence replication. However, 1.9 is the true milestone release where we have finally moved away from the original architecture. For those that don't know, the original architecture looked like …

PostgreSQL Conference: West 2007, More video up

I have gotten a couple more of the West 2007 Videos.

PgDay LFNW: Call for Papers! (04/25/09)

PostgreSQL Conference, U.S. is having a PgDay at LinuxFest Northwest in Bellingham Washington on April 25th, 2009. The PgDay (and LinuxFest Northwest) is a free event. We are holding the PgDAY on the first day of the event (a Saturday) parallel with LFNW. There was over 700 attendees to LFNW last year. LFNW is hoping for even more this year! In short, we are looking for some PostgreSQL talks (45 …

PostgreSQL Conference: West 07, two videos added

As I was working on PostgreSQL Conference this weekend I happen to crawl under my desk to pick up a pin I dropped. As I was crawling back out I smacked my head on the top of the desk and in the process jostled an empty (black) computer case that was sitting there. I noticed something on top of the case so I took a long hard look and behold! …

PostgreSQL Conference: East 09, when to hold survey (closed)

I have closed the survey, "When to hold it" and provided the results. Of particular interest to me was the majority wanted Late March/Early April but a significant amount were also interested in having the conference in Early June. I am also glad to see that people were not interested in conflicting with Ottawa as I hear it is a very good conference.

PostgreSQL Conference: Perl5 is Alive

Although I don't follow the Perl world very much, my respected peer Matt S. Trout emailed me wondering when I would be able to get the Perl 5 is Alive! video up. Apparently there are some buffoons spreading FUD about the state of this very much alive, very much supported, very much developed, very much kicking language. So take a look at the link above and see for yourself. If …