Is it a good idea to offer both MySQL and PostgreSQL?

[sneader]

Background: Been using cPanel since 2004 and we've only ever offered MySQL support -- never offered PostgreSQL support.

I've had a couple of customers recently ask me about PostgreSQL. I thought I would look through the forums and see what discussions there are about supporting PostgreSQL and MySQL simultaneously but not seeing much (pro or con).

So... is it fairly common to add support for PostgreSQL, in addition to the standard MySQL offering? Pros and cons? Concerns? Special requirements? Any and all input greatly appreciated!

- Scott

[cPanelTristan]

Hello,

In all the time I've worked in the hosting industry, I've never seen a PostgreSQL database cause a server to crash. I'm not saying it cannot happen, just that I haven't seen it happen. I think that is the main concern for any component being added to a server.

As for concerns, the security restrictions for PostgreSQL can oftentimes make it more difficult to work with, but if your customers would like to use it, then I'd suggest trying it out for awhile to see how it goes. Its unlikely very many people will end up using it, so you shouldn't have a great deal of support you have to do for it.

Thanks!

[kjg]

Hi
We offer PostgreSQL on almost all of our servers and it is used by quite a few customers.

The customers using PostgreSQL are on average very much more "IT persons" than the ones using mysql (most of them are users of joomla or other cms's)

We have very little support requests on postgreSQL, probably because they know how to do things themself.

The cons are that cPanel only offers support for old versions of PostgreSQL and you will probably get quite a few requests from customers, asking you to upgrade the postgreSQL installation to a more modern version (at moment 8.1.23 is the version supported and that is a really, really old version with EOL ages ago - november 2010).

// kjg

[cPanelKenneth]

Unlike MySQL, we don't provide PostgreSQL packages. Our installpostgresql script uses whatever the operating system vendor supplies. Newer versions of CentOS and RHEL come with newer versions of PostgreSQL.

The one thing I'd point out about PostgreSQL vs. MySQL is don't approach PostgreSQL with the thought that most of your MySQL knowledge will translate to PostgreSQL knowledge. While there are certainly similarities and overlaps between the two database services, their security models and SQL implementations are quite different. The PostgreSQL documentation is very useful in this regard.

[sneader]

Thanks, everyone, for the insight. It sounds like it would be OK for me to enable/install PostgreSQL on the one server that the customer is asking for it, and see how it goes. I'm sure it will be a learning experience. :-)

- Scott

[nospa]

If you will find that they need to be more tweaks than simply running installpostgresql script - please post your suggestions here. We are worry about security settings of PostgreSQL