Re: postgres crash SOS

> -----Original Message-----
> From: pgsql-general-owner(at)postgresql(dot)org [mailto:pgsql-general-
> owner(at)postgresql(dot)org] On Behalf Of Merlin Moncure
> Sent: Thursday, June 17, 2010 12:56 PM
> To: Tom Lane
> Cc: Felde Norbert; pgsql-general(at)postgresql(dot)org; Scott Marlowe
> Subject: Re: [GENERAL] postgres crash SOS
>
> On Thu, Jun 17, 2010 at 2:53 PM, Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us> wrote:
> > You weren't too specific about how you got into this state, but I
> > suppose that it must have been a system crash or power failure.  Even
> > then, you would not have gotten burnt if the filesystem and hardware
> > did what they're supposed to do.  I suspect you have a setup wherein
> > fsync() calls aren't being honored properly.  You may need to disable
> > write caching on your disks, and/or switch to another filesystem or
> OS.
> > (Personally I'd never run a database I cared about on Windows.)
>
> Although I don't run pg/windows anymore, I did for years and I think
> you're right -- I bet there was a hard reset event and either fsync
> was off or not being honored properly. I was communicating with the
> OP off list to see if there was any evidence of disk full condition
> (no response yet). I never saw any data corruption in line with this
> w/o some external trigger.
>
> In regards to windows/pg generally, I don't think it's all that bad.
> The windows NT kernel is absolutely rock solid stable (quite frankly,
> moreso than linux IMO) and very well supported in terms of hardaware.
> otoh, windows kernel configuration is wacky, the shell sucks, insanely
> overdesigned security model, posix not really supported, etc. It's a
> mixed bag for sure.

I think that the bottom line is that {like any DBMS system} effort is needed to make PostgreSQL run smoothly on any platform, but for Windows support is still fairly new, while on POSIX systems all the kinks have had plenty of time to get worked out. So it should not be unexpected that there will be more problems seen on Windows platforms than on POSIX type platforms. Even so, I think that the progress on Windows has been excellent and that PostgreSQL is definitely a viable alternative to traditional commercial systems. In all cases (Windows or other alternatives) we should use thoroughly tested and carefully configured systems to store our business data.

Nothing new or remarkable here. Just common sense.
IMO-YMMV