
ARIN migrated from Oracle to PostgreSQL - jeffdavis
http://lists.arin.net/pipermail/arin-announce/2013-December/001599.html
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jeffdavis
It should also be noted that Afilias, which manages .org, .info, .mobi (and
more), uses PostgreSQL.

So PostgreSQL is pretty heavily involved in internet infrastructure right now.

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rch
As it has been. Is this an under-documented fact?

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ghostdiver
What version, configuration, hardware, do they use replication and how?

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rch
I just remember reading that the .org TLD was running on Postgres ten plus
years ago. Yahoo knows a thing or two about scaling up on Postgres as well, as
I recall. When these decisions were made, it was generally expected that one
would have quite a lot of work to do, regardless.

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ghostdiver
Makes me wonder how much hacking of postgres source code it required.

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trippy_biscuits
I especially appreciate PostgreSQL's documentation. I find it easy to locate,
search, and understand. I certainly have not had that experience with Oracle
docs.

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electrum
Oracle's documentation is excellent and is WAY more comprehensive than
PostgreSQL. For example, most of PostgreSQL's SQL functions have a single line
in a table to describe them, whereas each one in Oracle has it's own section
with a full description, examples, etc.

I agree that the relative small size of PostgreSQL documentation and the fact
that it fits in a single "book" compared to the many books that comprise the
Oracle documentation can make it easier to find something. But can't say I've
ever seen a product with as much quality documentation as Oracle.

You can find the documentation for Oracle 12c here:
[http://www.oracle.com/pls/db121/homepage](http://www.oracle.com/pls/db121/homepage)

As a user, you want to look in "SQL Language Reference" first, followed by
"Data Warehousing Guide" (found in a separate folder on the left side). As an
administrator, "Concepts" is required reading followed by "Administrator's
Guide".

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samplonius
> For example, most of PostgreSQL's SQL functions have a single line in a
> table to describe them

Reference?

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VLM
This is probably a good discussion point

[http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.3/static/functions-
aggregat...](http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.3/static/functions-
aggregate.html)

Not only as an example of "single line in a table" but also as an example
where a huge volume would not add much value.

I'm struggling at this time to figure out how to produce multiple pages of
boilerplate explaining "min()" that would be any more useful than the table.

On the other hand the explanation about nulls really sucks. Its important
enough to put in the single line. For those too lazy to click and read, when a
noob thinks he wants "SUM(bunchastuff)" what he probably wants is along the
lines of using COALESCE or a homemade function that smells like COALESCE.
There is a meta discussion that whenever NULLs are possible, and its more than
just table definitions for example an overactive WHERE clause, then the NULLs
will be a PITA. Defensive SQL coding can be tedious.

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diminoten
I wonder if this was as much work as I suspect it was.

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tracker1
Depends on the complexity of their schema, and how many and of what complexity
any stored procedures they relied on were.

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DrJokepu
In many ways PostgreSQL is fairly similar to Oracle and it also supports its
own version of PL/SQL. There are tools to automate migration of both schema
and data. I reckon the real difficulty of such a transition is updating
application code (and legacy code) to work with PostgreSQL.

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midas007
This is by design because EnterpriseDB (based on Postgres) is basically
intended as a replacment for Oracle. Anything commercial that uses fancy
Oracle features would want to look at this because it would be easier to
support.

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elchief
There's an extension for PG that adds many of Oracle's functions:

[http://pgxn.org/dist/orafce/](http://pgxn.org/dist/orafce/)

"This module allows use a well known Oracle's functions and packages inside
PostgreSQL"

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derleth
Does anyone here know how big the relevant database actually is?

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midas007
We might try publicly brow-beating Mark Kosters for an answer, that would
_totally_ work. Or maybe: asking nicely.

most probable email addr: markk at arin dot net

[https://www.arin.net/announcements/2013/20131214.html](https://www.arin.net/announcements/2013/20131214.html)

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derleth
You can brow-beat, I asked nicely.

