If the database was smaller and less infrastructure was reliant on it working I would agree with you that philosophically open source software makes a lot of sense.
However your argument is philosophical rather than logical. Note I'm merely requesting that the idea be examined. I am not saying I know what is best and all the things that need to be considered. Cheerio John On Fri, Jul 24, 2020, 14:35 Yves <y...@mailbox.org> wrote: > You're probably have some very good points when it comes to database > management, but running an open map on open source software makes a lot of > sense. > > Yves > > Le 24 juillet 2020 20:11:46 GMT+02:00, john whelan <jwhelan0...@gmail.com> > a écrit : >> >> All this talk about databases and servers and sysadmins makes me wonder >> if we should reconsider our choice of operating systems and databases. >> >> At one time in the past I ran a Database support group that covered >> Sybase, Oracle, Microsoft SQL server, ingres and half a dozen other >> database systems. >> >> The UNIX side, some twenty or so servers ran software that in theory >> monitored the databases. In practise it never really was upto date. >> Microsoft also had a very nice monitoring tool that monitored and suggested >> solutions. I've dropped an example report below. >> >> We ran probably fifty SQL server database servers and I spent quite a lot >> of time maxing the memory on a server then consolidating servers. Towards >> the end we had far more data running on SQL server than we did on the UNIX >> side. The servers were cheaper for the same performance for a start. >> >> Many of the UNIX based servers had default passwords set which made >> security a problem. Fortunately they were protected by an air gap from the >> Internet. >> >> We had an IBM mainframe in the mix with an old database on it. The >> programmers gradually retired. I was lucky and identified another >> government department that was switching away from it and we managed to >> grab a handful of programmers etc from them. Then a couple of years later >> that DBA retired. You need to think of the future. Will I be able to get >> knowledgeable staff if I need to? We had to pay the company to run a >> special course in Ottawa and that was not cheap by the time we put the >> trainer up in a hotel and paid his airfare from the states. >> >> Initially the Microsoft side suffered from lack of security but they >> hardened the operating system and SQL server to a point where it was the >> most secure combination. Microsoft SQL server was originally Sybase but >> got completely rewritten over time. >> >> On the support side my staff found that once we had set the permissions >> to an operating system group we just had to add people to the group. For >> other databases each person had to be given permissions individually which >> made for finger problems. The classic was one secure database that was >> supposed to be accessed operationally by 300 people. The problem was there >> were 600 accounts and no one knew which ones were needed or which could be >> deleted to reduce the surface area for attack. >> >> The integrated Microsoft monitoring system made reliability much better. >> There were far fewer problems on the Microsoft SQL side than on the UNIX / >> other database side and they were easier to fix. One of my less expert >> database admins was shocked by the ease of which he caught the problem and >> corrected it by himself after an alert. It gave him a bit of confidence as >> well. >> >> We changed to PostgreSQL in 2009. The size of the database was much >> smaller then. >> >> One thing we noticed was on the database tuning side. SQL server worked >> better if you just left it alone and didn't try to tune it. It would check >> what was in memory rather than go out to the disk drives and that made a >> big difference to performance. We measure disk access in milliseconds and >> memory access in nanoseconds. One is ten thousand times smaller than the >> other. >> >> On the reliability side there is a set of guidelines that are basically >> common sense. I forget the formal (ISO?) name but many organisations have >> seen considerable savings in money and in reliability by using them. I met >> the English guy who originated them at a Microsoft presentation. They can >> be applied to any environment. >> >> I think we either run the largest PostgreSQL database there is or it is >> close to it. From a reliability point of view my professional hat says >> this is not where you want to be. You want to be more mainstream with >> someone else being on the bleeding edge. >> >> So the heresy would be look at the implications of changing to Microsoft >> SQL server in the cloud. There is lots of documentation and given that >> Microsoft has worked closely with us in the past the cost might not be too >> bad. I do understand that we have a large investment in our current set up >> both as an organisation and personally and many will consider this as >> heresy but now is probably the time to think about it. >> >> Cheerio John >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> Your message to rolland.desroc...@motioncares.ca couldn't be delivered. >> Rolland.desrocher wasn't found at motioncares.ca. >> jwhelan0112 Office 365 Rolland.desrocher >> *Action Required* >> Recipient >> >> >> >> >> >> Unknown To address >> >> >> How to Fix It >> The address may be misspelled or may not exist. Try one or more of the >> following: >> >> - Send the message again following these steps: In Outlook, open this >> non-delivery report (NDR) and choose *Send Again* from the Report >> ribbon. In Outlook on the web, select this NDR, then select the link "*To >> send this message again, click here.*" Then delete and retype the >> entire recipient address. If prompted with an Auto-Complete List >> suggestion >> don't select it. After typing the complete address, click *Send*. >> - Contact the recipient (by phone, for example) to check that the >> address exists and is correct. >> - The recipient may have set up email forwarding to an incorrect >> address. Ask them to check that any forwarding they've set up is working >> correctly. >> - Clear the recipient Auto-Complete List in Outlook or Outlook on the >> web by following the steps in this article: Fix email delivery issues >> for error code 5.1.10 in Office 365 >> <https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=532972>, and then send the >> message again. Retype the entire recipient address before selecting >> *Send*. >> >> If the problem continues, forward this message to your email admin. If >> you're an email admin, refer to the *More Info for Email Admins* section >> below. >> > > -- > Envoyé de mon appareil Android avec Courriel K-9 Mail. Veuillez excuser ma > brièveté. >
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