Re: Do Petabyte storage solutions exist?

On Thu, 1 Apr 2004, Bradley Kieser wrote:

> I think as far as PG storage goes you're really on a losing streak here
> because PG clustering really isn't going to support this across multiple
> servers. We're not even close to the mark as far as clustered servers
> and replication management goes, let alone the storate limit of 2GB per
> table. So sadly, PG would have to bow out of this IMHO unless someone
> else nukes me on this!

Hold on, there are instances of running postgresql on SANs that are many
terabytes in size. It will work fine, as long as you only need the one
image of the server running at a time. With FC-AL or more modern
technology you can put ~256 devices on a single fibre loop, and most boxes
can handle four of those controllers, so you have the possibility for 1024
drives. Of course, most kernels are not gonna handle that many drives
well, so you're much better off aggregating the drives on a storage box,
then mounting that from your database server.

HOWEVER, this isn't my biggest gripe, it is the misinformation you're
spreading about a 2g table limit. That's the individual FIELD limit on
postgresql. Tables can be significantly larger than 2g.

If you're not sure ask first, don't spread such misinformation, it makes
both the community and the database look bad.

>
> Brad
>
> Tony Reina wrote:
>
> >I have a database that will hold massive amounts of scientific data.
> >Potentially, some estimates are that we could get into needing
> >Petabytes (1,000 Terabytes) of storage.
> >
> >1. Do off-the-shelf servers exist that will do Petabyte storage?
> >
> >2. Is it possible for PostgreSQL to segment a database between
> >multiple servers? (I was looking at a commercial vendor who had a
> >product that took rarely used data in Oracle databases and migrated
> >them to another server to keep frequently accessed data more readily
> >available.)
> >
> >Thanks.
> >-Tony
> >
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