Thread: Binary Replication and Slony

John Cheng wrote:
> Congrats on the 9.0 release of PostgreSQL. One of the features I am really
> interested in is the built-in binary replication.
>
> Our production environment has been using PostgreSQL for more than 5 years
> (since this project started). We have been using Slony-I as our replication
> mechanism. I am interested to find out the pros and cons of Slony vs the
> built-in replication in 9.0. Based on what I understand:
>
> * Slony has a higher overhead than the binary replication in 9.0
> * When using Slony, schema change must be applied via slonik (in most cases)
> * Unfortunately, IMO it is easy to make a mistake when applying schema
> changes in Slony, fortunately, it is easy to drop and recreate the
> replication sets
> * Slony is an asynchronous replication mechanism
> * Slony allows you to replication some tables, while ignoring others
>
> * PostgreSQL 9.0 with hot standby & streaming replication is an asynchronous
> replication mechanism
> * Overhead is low compared to Slony
>
> Are there some cases where it is better to use Slony, for example, when you
> must specifically exclude tables from replication? I believe our system will
> be better off using the built-in replication mechanism of 9.0, and I am
> guessing most people will be in the same boat.

You have summarized the differences well.  Streaming replication has
lower overhread, but doesn't allow per-table granularity or allow
replication between different versions of Postgres.

--
  Bruce Momjian  <bruce@momjian.us>        http://momjian.us
  EnterpriseDB                             http://enterprisedb.com

  + It's impossible for everything to be true. +

johnlicheng@gmail.com (John Cheng) writes:
> Congrats on the 9.0 release of PostgreSQL. One of the features I am really
> interested in is the built-in binary replication.
>
> Our production environment has been using PostgreSQL for more than 5 years
> (since this project started). We have been using Slony-I as our replication
> mechanism. I am interested to find out the pros and cons of Slony vs the
> built-in replication in 9.0. Based on what I understand:
>
> * Slony has a higher overhead than the binary replication in 9.0
> * When using Slony, schema change must be applied via slonik (in most cases)
> * Unfortunately, IMO it is easy to make a mistake when applying schema changes
> in Slony, fortunately, it is easy to drop and recreate the replication sets
> * Slony is an asynchronous replication mechanism
> * Slony allows you to replication some tables, while ignoring others
>
> * PostgreSQL 9.0 with hot standby & streaming replication is an asynchronous
> replication mechanism
> * Overhead is low compared to Slony
>
> Are there some cases where it is better to use Slony, for example, when you
> must specifically exclude tables from replication? I believe our system will be
> better off using the built-in replication mechanism of 9.0, and I am guessing
> most people will be in the same boat.

There are three characteristic kinds of cases where you'll need
something like Slony-I, where the built-in WAL-based replication won't
work:

a) You need to interact between PostgreSQL versions.  Slony (and similar
   systems like Londiste and Bucardo) can cope with having nodes running
   different versions of PostgreSQL.

   WAL-based replication requires that all databases use *identical*
   versions of PostgreSQL, running on identical architectures.

b) You only want to replicate parts of the changes that are going on.

   WAL-based replication duplicates *absolutely everything*.

c) You need for there to be extra behaviours taking place on
   subscribers, for instance, populating cache management information.

   WAL-based replication duplicates *absolutely everything*, and nothing
   extra that changes data can run on a WAL-based replica.

If you don't need any of those things, then, yes, I'd think the built-in
replication is a good choice, quite likely preferable to using the
trigger-based replication systems like Slony.
--
output = reverse("ofni.secnanifxunil" "@" "enworbbc")
"What you  said you   want to do  is  roughly  equivalent to   nailing
horseshoes to the tires of your Buick."  -- danceswithcrows@usa.net on
the question "Why can't Linux use Windows Drivers?"

  On 10-09-20 12:49 PM, Bruce Momjian wrote:
> John Cheng wrote:
>> Congrats on the 9.0 release of PostgreSQL. One of the features I am really
>> interested in is the built-in binary replication.
>>
>> Our production environment has been using PostgreSQL for more than 5 years
>> (since this project started). We have been using Slony-I as our replication
>> mechanism. I am interested to find out the pros and cons of Slony vs the
>> built-in replication in 9.0. Based on what I understand:
>>
>> * Slony has a higher overhead than the binary replication in 9.0
>> * When using Slony, schema change must be applied via slonik (in most cases)
>> * Unfortunately, IMO it is easy to make a mistake when applying schema
>> changes in Slony, fortunately, it is easy to drop and recreate the
>> replication sets
>> * Slony is an asynchronous replication mechanism
>> * Slony allows you to replication some tables, while ignoring others
>>
>> * PostgreSQL 9.0 with hot standby&  streaming replication is an asynchronous
>> replication mechanism
>> * Overhead is low compared to Slony
>>
>> Are there some cases where it is better to use Slony, for example, when you
>> must specifically exclude tables from replication? I believe our system will
>> be better off using the built-in replication mechanism of 9.0, and I am
>> guessing most people will be in the same boat.
> You have summarized the differences well.  Streaming replication has
> lower overhread, but doesn't allow per-table granularity or allow
> replication between different versions of Postgres.
>

Slony will also allow you to:

-run custom schema (like extra indexes) on replicas
-replicate between different hardware architectures and OS's
-run lengthy queries against replicas having to worry about trade offs
surrounding query cancellation vs standby lagging.
-switch roles of two nodes without entering a degraded state or worrying
about STONITH.  If you switch roles in a controlled manner, both nodes
remain in the cluster.  Slony prevents writes against the replica.

I do agree that for most, Slony is overkill and streaming replication
and hot standby will be the better choice.

--
Brad Nicholson  416-673-4106
Database Administrator, Afilias Canada Corp.