Re: How to choose a DB

Thanks for clearing things up Mark. I wasn't trying to bash Oracle just provide information and I botched it. I posted originally from CD and did not notice the cross postings so I hoped to present Oracle and Informix as possible solutions. Obviously my understanding of Oracle's clustering options is sorely lacking. I'm going to brush up for my own knowledge. Thanks again.

Art S. Kagel

Mark Townsend wrote:
>
> Miguel, Art - comments inline
>
> "Art S. Kagel" wrote:
> >
> > Miguel Cruz wrote:
> > >
> > > Anat Maoz <anatmaoz_at_hotmail.com> wrote:
> > > > I need to choose a database which serve my server.
>
> [snip]
>
> > > At the moment I'm looking most closely at Informix and Oracle because they
> > > are supported natively (sans-ODBC) by PHP. Key features for our application
> > > include transparent (or near-transparent) clustering and flexible fulltext
> > > indexing across selected fields.
> >
> > The problem is that for both Oracle and Informix your two requirements,
> > transparent cluster support and fulltext indexing, are both supported but by
> > separate products.
>
> By Oracle Cluster Server I presume you mean Oracle8i Parallel Server,
> which adds cluster support to Oracle8i. There is no product called
> Oracle Cluster Server.
>
> > Oracle Cluster Server does not support DataBlades which
> > would be needed for full-text indexing and searching and Oracle 8i does not
> > support clusters.
>
> Incorrect. Full text indexing and searching is provided by the
> interMedia option for Oracle8i. interMedia is fully supported with
> Oracle8i Parallel Server.
>
> > Actually, it is my understanding that OCS only adds the ability to share
> > disks between cluster members and actually implements spreading a table over
> > cluster members using SYNONYMS and VIEWS UNIONing the various pieces of the
> > table back together.
>
> Incorrect. A single physical table can be accessed by all cluster
> members running Oracle8i Parallel Server instances, in parallel,
> totally independently of how the data is organized. Oracle8i
> Partitioning (or indeed the pseudo partitioning alluded to by Art) is
> not required for Oracle8i Parallel Server. However, Oracle8i
> Partitioning may well make configuration and management easier in an
> Oracle8i Parallel Server environment where you are dealing with large
> data volumes.
>
> Miguel - you mentioned a requirement for transparent or near transparent
> clustering - can I ask you what for ?
>
> If you are looking at clustering for an HA solution, then there are
> easier failover cluster solutions available that don't require either
> Oracle8i Parallel Server or Informix XPS (both of which will cost you an
> arm and a leg in licence cost and possibly deployment). These are nearly
> 100% transparent to your application and are typically database
> independent. Talk to your hardware vendor about these types of failover
> solutions
>
> If you are looking at clustering for scalability, then Oracle8i Parallel
> Server is viable for your needs - but be prepared to have to jump
> through some hoops in the design and implementation of your application.
> And if you are trying to deploy a packaged application (PHP ?) then you
> will need to make sure that your packaged application vendor is happy to
> support a clustered solution - it is likely that cluster support will
> require some application level smarts, and not all of them are
> architectured to use a cluster intelligently.
> --
> Regards,
>
> Mark Townsend
  Received on Thu Dec 30 1999 - 00:00:00 CET