On Friday, September 23, 2005, Craig Dudley sent forth:
>
>>
>>But I just want to be clear to anyone else reading the list (lurkers et
>>al) that your statement of "I don't think PowerMail or other well-written
>>applications behave like this" simply isn't true. Very well-written
>>database engines keep files open, and yes, a crash or cut to power can
>>leave those files unusable. But I'd like to stress for the technical out
>>there (and there seem to be plenty on this list) that that's not an
>>indication that the app is flawed; it's simply the nature of databases.
>>
>
>Uh, I disagree. I work with lots of database managers that pride themselves
>of being able to recover back/forward to a specified point-in-time. That is
>a *requirement*.
>
>
The "nature of databases" and the "pride of database managers" are two
mutually independent things.
Databases ARE prone to corruption in the event of a power failure or
other such unexpected interruption. This cannot be disputed.
What the people who run them do about this issue is quite another thing
and should not be confused with the above statement. These people might:
run scripts to "pause" the database while a copy is being made or use
an equivalent built-in feature that the vendor supplied with the main
application.
use disk mirroring to guarantee that what is written on the main disk
is almost simultaneously written to a recovery disk somewhere else in the
organization.
use some other option
In short, the database managers, bless their tired little souls, might
indeed be proud of what they do but that does not change the fact that an
open file is always facing the risk of damage due to improper handling,
whatever the cause might be.
The statement you made is akin to someone saying the weather vary wildly
and you disagreeing by saying that meteorologists take pride in their
work. One does not negate the other.
--
Tim Lapin
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
