[techtalk] Linux DBMS

[Snarfblat]

(argg.. that reply to is going to mess with my head for eternity..)

Subba Rao wrote:
> 
> In the e-Business arena, where are Linux servers being used?
> It looks like Linux is being used only for Web servers and development
> platforms.
> 

Unfortunately I do not have much experience with standard industry
practice in e-business,  however, from what ive seen and read most
secure web servers using linux use a free or inexpensive database
(MySQL, postgreSQL, etc) to handle transactions, or provide an interface
into sites that handle transactions for you.  This is probably
completely incorrect, again, i dont know for sure.

> I am currently looking at using a DBMS server on a Linux system.
> Are Linux systems used as DBMS servers? If yes, what HW configuration
> would be recommended for a DBMS server for a e-Business application?

If your looking for some serious database power on linux consider Oracle
8.0.5 or 8.1.5 with a dedicated SCSI RAID storage system (or
fibrechannel disk arrays).  Ive been using 8.0.5 on linux (for
development not ecommerce) for a while, and it works great.  All of the
RDBMS tools and robust oracle features are there for linux.  I would
also suggest a journaling filesystem.
 
> Which DBMS systems perform well on Linux and are not resource hogs?

Depending on what you are doing, the various Oracle processes seem to be
around 20-30 M for a small database and low loads..  Oracle is
definately not the leanest, most efficient database available, but
depending on your requirements it may be the best fit.  Its not uncommon
for it to suck hundreds of megs of ram and gigabytes of disk space
though.  It all depends on your data.  But lots of ram and fast disks
are the two biggest factors for performance for most databases.

I do use the oracle server for some internal web serving, and it works
quite well for this.  the PL/SQL packages and programming capabilities
are incredibly helpful when writing or working with complex database
processes.  Compiled embedded SQL programs for CGI can get you excellent
performance into the database when generating XML or HTML documents.
(oracle 8.1.5 or 8i provides lots of XML/HTML and other web tools for
ecommerce types of applications)

I hate to sound like an Oracle sales rep, but the really nice features
oracle provides arent in any other open source / shareware databases.. I
would love to see this change..


In short:

If you are doing simple SQL type transactions, smaller data sets, and
hardware / price is tight then go with something like mSQL, MySQL,
PostgreSQL, etc...

If you are performing lots of multistep transaction type database
processes, large data sets, perhaps even tied into ERP / custom business
tables or databases, and you can afford some nice SCSI hardware, RAM,
and SMP then oracle would probably be your best bet.  

If your somewhere in the middle you'll have to do some research to find
the best fit of hardware / software.


Hope that helped...

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