PostgreSQL vs. MySQL, was: MySQL premium services?

[Matt Graham]

From: Alex Dean <alex at crackpot.org>
> On Dec 3, 2008, at 3:16 PM, kitepilot at kitepilot.com wrote:
>> Back then when I researched the issue (about a year or so ago), you  
>> had to take the server down to get a consistent backup with the tools  
>> provided by MySQL. I haven't updated my research since...
> Setting up a replication slave just for backups is pretty simple.   
> Then you can take down the slave to make a backup at any time without  
> affecting the master at all.

Yes, the Fine Manual for MySQL talks about that in great detail.  But
using a replication slave means you need another box, which you don't
always have.  My personal site does "mysqldump -A | gzip -9 > $DATE.gz"
every morning at 0-dark-thirty when no one's using it... which works,
but wouldn't work if I had 30G of data and a ton of users using it
all the time.

Also, if you stop the slave and make a file-based backup without
excluding the ib_logfile* files, then restore that backup on another
box, then start the server, you get an extraordinarily stupid error
message.  Sigh.

-- 
Matt G / Dances With Crows
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There is no Darkness in Eternity/But only Light too dim for us to see