ARIN migrated from Oracle to PostgreSQL

http://lists.arin.net/pipermail/arin-announce/2013-December/001599.html

by jeffdavis • 13 years ago

116 31 13 years ago

lists.arin.net

diminoten2• 13 years ago

I wonder if this was as much work as I suspect it was.

tracker1• 13 years ago

Depends on the complexity of their schema, and how many and of what complexity any stored procedures they relied on were.

DrJokepu• 13 years ago

In many ways PostgreSQL is fairly similar to Oracle and it also supports its own version of PL/SQL. There are tools to automate migration of both schema and data. I reckon the real difficulty of such a transition is updating application code (and legacy code) to work with PostgreSQL.

raverbashing• 13 years ago

This is the real story

"Migrating from Oracle to PSQL" means almost nothing (from a technical point of view)

But what were the issues? How did their schema look like then and now? Any stored procedures? Any Oracle-only features that had to be migrated? Any PSQL-only features now being used?

jeffdavis• 13 years ago

It should also be noted that Afilias, which manages .org, .info, .mobi (and more), uses PostgreSQL.

So PostgreSQL is pretty heavily involved in internet infrastructure right now.

rch2• 13 years ago

As it has been. Is this an under-documented fact?

ghostdiver2• 13 years ago

What version, configuration, hardware, do they use replication and how?

trippy_biscuits• 13 years ago

I especially appreciate PostgreSQL's documentation. I find it easy to locate, search, and understand. I certainly have not had that experience with Oracle docs.

octix• 13 years ago

Why one would need docs if there are plenty of 100-200$/hours oracle consultants :)

samplonius2• 13 years ago

It means you need a $300/hr consultant :)

dragonwriter3• 13 years ago

I've always found Oracle's database documentation to be reasonably good -- PostgreSQL's is better, but I'd rather be using Oracle's than Microsoft's SQL Server docs.

radicalbyte• 13 years ago

To be fair, Microsoft's reference material is pretty good - it's standardized, comprehensive and available for every version. You just need to know what to google to find the right page..

electrum• 13 years ago

Oracle's documentation is excellent and is WAY more comprehensive than PostgreSQL. For example, most of PostgreSQL's SQL functions have a single line in a table to describe them, whereas each one in Oracle has it's own section with a full description, examples, etc.

I agree that the relative small size of PostgreSQL documentation and the fact that it fits in a single "book" compared to the many books that comprise the Oracle documentation can make it easier to find something. But can't say I've ever seen a product with as much quality documentation as Oracle.

You can find the documentation for Oracle 12c here: http://www.oracle.com/pls/db121/homepage

As a user, you want to look in "SQL Language Reference" first, followed by "Data Warehousing Guide" (found in a separate folder on the left side). As an administrator, "Concepts" is required reading followed by "Administrator's Guide".

late2part• 13 years ago

Nice try, Larry.

dragonwriter3• 13 years ago

Oracle's documentation is excellent and is WAY more comprehensive than PostgreSQL.

I'd generally agree that Oracle's documentation is more extensive than PostgreSQL's in many respects, but Oracle's is also substantially less well organized than PostgreSQL's.

samplonius2• 13 years ago

For example, most of PostgreSQL's SQL functions have a single line in a table to describe them

Reference?

dschiptsov• 13 years ago

But it is so annoying to filter out all that branding, marketing slogans and self praise.)

rbanffy• 13 years ago

Unfortunately, Oracle's documentation document Oracle's product. That's reason enough to prefer PostgreSQL's documentation.

That was a bit tongue-in-cheek... Oracle makes an exceptionally solid RDBMS and deserves credit for that. It's just that it hurts every time I write VARCHAR2.

xkarga00• 13 years ago

PostgreSQL has some of the best documentation i've come across to. Very well organized and comprehensive enough.

derleth2• 13 years ago

Does anyone here know how big the relevant database actually is?

midas0072• 13 years ago

We might try publicly brow-beating Mark Kosters for an answer, that would totally work. Or maybe: asking nicely.

most probable email addr: markk at arin dot net

https://www.arin.net/announcements/2013/20131214.html

derleth2• 13 years ago

You can brow-beat, I asked nicely.

elchief• 13 years ago

There's an extension for PG that adds many of Oracle's functions:

http://pgxn.org/dist/orafce/

"This module allows use a well known Oracle's functions and packages inside PostgreSQL"

ARIN migrated from Oracle to PostgreSQL

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