Forum OpenACS Q&A: Installing OpenACS with PostgreSQL

Posted by Miguel Gonzalez on 11/14/01 02:28 PM

Dear all,

I am going to install OpenACS 3 with PostgreSQL. Currently I have
got PostgreSQL 7.0.3 in my system, but I would like to update to
7.1.3 but i dont know if there is any issue installing OpenACS with
this PG version.

Also a friend told me that it would be better to use AOLServer
instead of Apache. Any guidance about it?

Many thanks in advance.

Miguel

2: Response to Installing OpenACS with PostgreSQL (response to 1)

Posted by Don Baccus on 11/14/01 02:50 PM

Yes, AOLserver would be better as under Apache you have to run
mod_aolserver anyway (a module that implements the AOLserver API).
Might as well just run AOLserver.

Postgres 7.1.3 is great. However 7.2 is already in beta, so you
might want to just wait and upgrade once it is released (in a week
or two). I'm assuming you already have data in your PG 7.0.3
installation you want to save, even though you've not yet installed
OpenACS, so will have to dump and restore your existing databases.

If you don't really have any meaningful data stored in PG 7.0.3 then
you might as well install PG 7.1.3 and start playing around with
OpenACS. You can then move to PG 7.2 later (it looks like there
will be a PG 7.2beta3 so it will probably be three-four weeks until
it is released in final form).

3: What makes me mad about 7.2... (response to 1)

Posted by Jonathan Ellis on 11/14/01 04:38 PM

you apparently STILL have to edit dump files to drop columns. But at least alter table will be able to drop constraints...

4: Response to Installing OpenACS with PostgreSQL (response to 1)

Posted by Jun Yamog on 11/15/01 04:51 PM

Darn it.... we just finished upgrading our production servers from 7.0.3 to 7.1.3 last week. The upgrade was because to get our production servers OpenACS 4.2 using Postgres ready. Will OpenACS 4.x still go for PG 7.1.x for a good part of the future? The xql files looks for 7.1 would this still be a norm in the next 6 months?

5: Response to Installing OpenACS with PostgreSQL (response to 1)

Posted by Don Baccus on 11/15/01 06:30 PM

I personally think we need to support PG 7.1 and Oracle 8.1.6 for
the first half of 2002, anyway. There's nothing in PG 7.2 or Oracle
9i that's necessary.

Now ... PG 7.2 would've made porting slightly easier (create or
replace exists) and 9i with its support of SQL92 outer join syntax
means we could've used generic db-independent SQL for those queries,
easing our long-term maintenance problems.

But .. that's water under the brdge, we've already ported our asses
off.

And there's nothing in these new versions that have the impact on
our work that the addition of outer joins to PG 7.1 had. That was a
lifesaver. The improvements in PG 7.2 and Oracle 9i are relatively
minor from the generic toolkit point of view (individual site
builders may find things that will really help them, of course, and
PG 7.2's "lazy vacuum" will be welcomed by people running really
busy PG-based sites).

6: Response to Installing OpenACS with PostgreSQL (response to 1)

Posted by Dave Hwang on 11/15/01 08:28 PM

Now ... PG 7.2 would've made porting slightly easier (create or replace exists) and 9i with its support of SQL92 outer join syntax means we could've used generic db-independent SQL for those queries, easing our long-term maintenance problems.

What about coding style for new packages? Should we still write our code to run with 7.1's limitations (ie. should we still use DROP and CREATE instead of CREATE OR REPLACE)? Or is it pretty likely that a widespread upgrade to 7.2 will happen fairly quickly?

7: Response to Installing OpenACS with PostgreSQL (response to 1)

Posted by Don Baccus on 11/15/01 09:13 PM

I would like to see us write packages to run with PG 7.1, even new
ones, for at least a bit. Quite a few folks prefer to not switch
DBs unless there's a compelling reason to do so, because upgrading
can be a bit of a hassle (true of Oracle as well).

In the past, PG 7.1 represented a huge gain over PG 7.0, which in
turn represented a huge gain over PG 6.5, which was the first
version usable in high-concurrency environments.

PG 7.2 doesn't have anything in it that's nearly as compelling as
the last three major releases. There's lots of good stuff, but
show-stopping limitations were pretty much gone by PG 7.1 as far as
our OpenACS 4.x perspective goes.

So I suspect quite a few people who have existing PG 7.1
installations may just stick with them for awhile. Waiting for
early-achievers to uncover any really bad bugs in PG 7.2...