HA PostgreSQL

[I mistakenly posted this to pgsql-sql by mistake.  Sorry for the
duplicate to those on both lists]

I am trying to develop a plan for a high-availability (HA)
implementation of a database using PostgreSQL.  One wrinkle; the data we
receive is performance data, and occassional loss of some measurements
is Ok for us.  [I know, this is not in the main stream of database users
:-)].

I have looked ar rserv and pg-replicator, and they seem to be targeted
at replication without specific HA support.  Replication is great for
lots of things; but I need HA more than ACID replication.

I have seen a proposed solution that uses *rsync* on the database files
between machines and linux-ha to roll over the network access to the
available machine.  My question is pretty simple; can something as
*simple* as rsync make a full copy of the database consistently between
the machines?  That seems just too easy.

If I replace the process with something that uses pg_dump and rsync that
file (ok, now that seems more likely to generate a consistent database
image) that and restore that into the slave, does this work?  Obviously,
this approach is kinda a hammer approach; the poor active server will be
dumping till the cows come home.

Any and all feedback and comments are greatly appreciated.  And, as
always, thanks in advance,

Charlie

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Charles H. Woloszynski

ClearMetrix, Inc.
115 Research Drive
Bethlehem, PA 18015

tel: 610-419-2210 x400
fax: 240-371-3256
web: www.clearmetrix.com