Re: Is it possible to mirror the db in Postgres?

On Fri, Apr 20, 2001 at 03:33:38PM -0700, G. Anthony Reina wrote:
> We use Postgres 7.0.3 to store data for our scientific research. We have
> two other labs in St. Louis, MO and Tempe, AZ. I'd like to see if
> there's a way for them to mirror our database. They would be able to
> update our database when they received new results and we would be able
> to update theirs. So, in effect, we'd have 3 copies of the same db. Each
> copy would be able to update the other.
> 
> Any thoughts on if this is possible?

Does the replication have to be reliable?  Are you equipped to
reconcile databases that have got out of sync, if not?  Will the
different labs ever try to update the same existing record, or
insert conflicting (unique-key) records?

Symmetric replication is easy or impossible, but usually somewhere 
in between, depending on many details.  Usually when it's made to
work, it runs on a LAN.  

Reliable WAN replication is harder.  Most of the proprietary database 
companies will tell you they can do it, but their customers will tell 
you they can't.  

Nathan Myers
ncm@zembu.com