Database Clustering on multiple harddisk

I think you may be a little confused...

Last time I checked, Oracle RAC doesn't actualy support clustering the I/O,
it's one Database backend with multiple instances on the front-end, which is
only clustering the CPU bound part (it's also VERY expensive).

If by clustering you mean multiple seperate tablespaces, then Postgresql
does support them.

If you mean RAID, then that is implemented by the HBA (host bus adapter),
and is transparent to Postgresql.

If you are looking for replication, many people find Slony a good add-on.

Alex

Thanks a Alex,

But can tou give a bit explanation about multiple separate tablespace
and HBA,
or is there any resources, tutorial on how to use this features on
postgresql

Thanks a lot

Alex Turner wrote:

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arie nugraha wrote:

Thanks a Alex,

But can tou give a bit explanation about multiple separate tablespace
and HBA,
or is there any resources, tutorial on how to use this features on
postgresql

An HBA is a physical card. Think of it as an "optical SCSI card".
Thus, there won't be any PostgreSQL docs for it.

Tablespaces let you specify what directory you want to put an object
in. This is useful for large systems with multiple RAID sets on
different SCSI busses. It's also useful for smaller systems where
you want named subdirectories for different groups of data.

Thanks a lot

Alex Turner wrote:

I think you may be a little confused...

Last time I checked, Oracle RAC doesn't actualy support

clustering the

I/O, it's one Database backend with multiple instances on the
front-end, which is only clustering the CPU bound part (it's
also VERY expensive).

If by clustering you mean multiple seperate tablespaces, then
Postgresql does support them.

If you mean RAID, then that is implemented by the HBA (host bus
adapter), and is transparent to Postgresql.

If you are looking for replication, many people find Slony a
good

add-on.

Alex

On 6/20/06, *Arie Nugraha* <dicarve@gmail.com
<mailto:dicarve@gmail.com>> wrote:

Hi list,

I am new postgresql user and i had read the documentation but
i dont if PostgreSQL support database clustering on multiple harddisk
(multiple I/O, just like DB2 and Oracle does)
or not.

If postgreSQL support the database clustering is there any
documentation or tutorial that explain how to do it?

Thanks all.

- --
Ron Johnson, Jr.
Jefferson LA USA

Is "common sense" really valid?
For example, it is "common sense" to white-power racists that
whites are superior to blacks, and that those with brown skins
are mud people.
However, that "common sense" is obviously wrong.
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On 6/20/06, arie nugraha <dicarve@gmail.com> wrote:

Thanks a Alex,

But can tou give a bit explanation about multiple separate tablespace

This will give you the basic syntax for the commands.
http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.1/static/sql-createtablespace.html
http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.1/static/sql-createtable.html

A tablespace is a designated location on a parition to store database
objects such as tables and indexes. They are often used to spread a large
databases over multiple logical partitions to improve performance.

and HBA,

The host bus adapter is what connects your computer to your storage/discs.
Often a SCSI, iSCSI, SAS. Fibre Channel or a SATA card depending on your
storage type. This card controls how your disc is configured and set up
with regard to RAID levels (If you have a RAID capable card) (Redundant
Array of Independant Discs, typically mirroring/striping or striping with
parity RAID 1, RAID 10 or RAID 5)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID talks more about RAID levels and what they
mean.

RAID arrays are typicaly transparent to your OS, so your OS doesn't care
about the RAID level, only the HBA does.

RAID allows you to configure redunancy in your disc array, so that if one
disc fails, there are others with the data on it so that your server doesn't
go down and you don't loose data (which is what I suspect you want). A RAID
array is managed purely by the HBA (at least in the case of hardware RAID,
which is what you want because it supports Battery Backed Caches), and
doesn't affect how the OS sees the disc. And seeing that postgresql makes
calls to disc through the OS, if the OS doesn't care, neither does
postgresql. The thing you have to be carefull of is drivers for your HBA in
the OS. Many HBAs have very poor drivers, especially for Linux and other
UNIXes, so you can often see very bad performance because of a poor HBA
driver.

or is there any resources, tutorial on how to use this features on