Re: PG over NFS tips

Cott Lang <cott@internetstaff.com> writes:
> The higher-ups are attempting to force me to run Postgres over NFS at
> least temporarily.

> Despite giving me a queasy feeling and reading quite a bit of messages
> advising against it, running Oracle over NFS with a NAS filer doesn't
> seem to be unusual. Is there a reason PG would be more sensitive than
> Oracle?

No --- the issues are not with Postgres per se but with the reliability
of your NFS setup.  On top of the not-infinite reliability of disk drive
hardware you now have to stack risk of failure of the NAS machine itself,
network problems, and misconfiguration problems (eg, ill-chosen mount
options).

The people who run Oracle over NFS successfully have usually paid top
dollar for quality NAS hardware and a network run by people who know
what they're doing.  Put PG into that same environment and it will work
just as well.  But put PG on a lesser-grade setup, run by not quite such
competent admins, and you're in for trouble.

            regards, tom lane