Best way to install postgres? RPM/Source Code Build

DM wrote:

Hi All,

What is the best way to Install postgres database?

We have installed (2) versions of the postgres on th server using
source code (compiling and building) (/usr/local/pgsql/8.3.3/ and
/usr/local/pgsql/8.3.6/) and our data directory is (/mnt/data/pgsql/)
Our database size is more than 100GB. Currently we are running 8.3.6.
When we upgraded from 8.3.3 to 8.3.6, we pointed the data directory of
8.3.3 to 8.3.6.

Ops team want to install postgres as (usr/local/bin) using RPM, and
want to keep the data directory under (/var/lib/data/pgsql) and they
say that we cannot have two versions at the same time using RPM.
They say that red hat standard is to install all binaries of the
database under /usr/local/bin and by using RPM only.

What is the best way to install postgres? Is it by RPM or using Source
code (Build). Could postgres experts comment on this please.

actually, the redhat RPM standard is to intsall the binaries in /usr/bin
and libraries in /usr/lib and so forth, and the postgres data is in
/var/lib/pgsql/data ....

however, if you build your own RPMs, you can build it any way you
want. upgrading 8.3.x to 8.3.y generally does NOT require any sort of
dump/restore, just stop the server, upgrade the binaries, restart the
server and move on.

I for one use the PGDG yum rpm repository, and install the 8.3 on top of
the default rhel/centos 4 or 5 binaries. the repository includes a
compatibility library which satisfies RPM dependencies on the original
RHEL versions of the libpq.so ...

On Tue, Apr 28, 2009 at 6:00 PM, DM <dm.aeqa@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi All,
What is the best way to Install postgres database?
We have installed (2) versions of the postgres on th server using source
code (compiling and building) (/usr/local/pgsql/8.3.3/ and
/usr/local/pgsql/8.3.6/) and our data directory is (/mnt/data/pgsql/)
Our database size is more than 100GB. Currently we are running 8.3.6. When
we upgraded from 8.3.3 to 8.3.6, we pointed the data directory of 8.3.3 to
8.3.6.
Ops team want to install postgres as (usr/local/bin) using RPM, and want to
keep the data directory under (/var/lib/data/pgsql) and they say that we
cannot have two versions at the same time using RPM.
They say that red hat standard is to install all binaries of the database
under /usr/local/bin and by using RPM only.
What is the best way to install postgres? Is it by RPM or using Source code
(Build). Could postgres experts comment on this please.

If you need > 1 version at the same time on the same machine with
rpms, then source code is preferred. If you're running a debian or
debian derived OS (ubuntu etc) then you CAN have > 1 version, but only
major versions. i.e. 8.2.11 and 8.3.7, but not 8.3.3 and 8.3.7. But
there's not usually a great need for > 1 minor version so no great
loss.

On in house testing servers it can be handy to have multiple minor
versions for testing, and in that case installing from source is
preferred. For big production machines, you should already have a
plan in place for upgrading so that you usually don't need multiple
minor or even major versions there.

Performance wise there's no real difference.

On Tue, Apr 28, 2009 at 6:08 PM, John R Pierce <pierce@hogranch.com> wrote:

I for one use the PGDG yum rpm repository, and install the 8.3 on top of the
default rhel/centos 4 or 5 binaries.   the repository includes a
compatibility library which satisfies RPM dependencies on the original RHEL
versions of the libpq.so ...

This is what I do too. Run Centos 5.2 in production and the PGDG
8.3.x rpms have been wonderful.

Ops team want to install postgres as (usr/local/bin) using RPM, and
want to keep the data directory under (/var/lib/data/pgsql) and they
say that we cannot have two versions at the same time using RPM.
They say that red hat standard is to install all binaries of the
database under /usr/local/bin and by using RPM only.

They are wrong. Redhat standard is /usr/bin for
binaries /var/lib/pgsql/data for the data directory.

Use www.pgsqlrpms.org and make your life easy.

Joshua D. Drake

Joshua D. Drake

--
PostgreSQL - XMPP: jdrake@jabber.postgresql.org
Consulting, Development, Support, Training
503-667-4564 - http://www.commandprompt.com/
The PostgreSQL Company, serving since 1997

Thank you guys for the answers.

On Tue, Apr 28, 2009 at 6:06 PM, Joshua D. Drake <jd@commandprompt.com>wrote: