Re: [REPOST] Remote database questions (NFS shared access, RServ)

Sharing a DB via NFS - No - absolutely not a good idea, no matter which DB
you're talking about.

However, you can remote access the DB through TCP/IP sockets, the Postmaster
can be configured to listen to some port (5432 is the default) and you can
have remote sessions running.
To R/O access a PostGreSQL DB, you can grant 'select' rights to the remote
users. It's not the same as opening the DB via a local postmaster process on
a remote drive though - refer to my first point ;).

Best regards,
Chris


----- Original Message -----
From: "Tom Lane" <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
To: "Steve Frampton" <frampton@linuxninja.com>
Cc: <pgsql-admin@postgresql.org>
Sent: Tuesday, October 09, 2001 8:32 AM
Subject: Re: [ADMIN] [REPOST] Remote database questions (NFS shared access,
RServ)


> Steve Frampton <frampton@LinuxNinja.com> writes:
> > even better solution seems to be to run my production (or backup mirror)
> > from a NetApp over Gb NFS so there's no issues with replication.  Is it
> > possible, safe, and advisable to share a PostgreSQL database file via
NFS,
> > as long as non-masters are only accessing it R/O?
>
> No.  (a) there is no such thing as R/O access in Postgres; (b) the
> non-masters would have no guarantee of seeing a consistent view,
> due to buffering inside the master.
>
> I don't even recommend mounting a database over NFS, let alone trying
> to share it.  Too much risk of database corruption after a system crash,
> because NFS provides only weak guarantees about write synchronization.
> See the mailing list archives for past discussion about NFS risks.
>
> regards, tom lane
>
> ---------------------------(end of broadcast)---------------------------
> TIP 4: Don't 'kill -9' the postmaster


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