Enterprise-level High Availability Features in PostgreSQL

High availability is a must-have for effective enterprise database solutions, which power your business-critical applications. Many decision-makers overlook open-source databases due to the assumption that they fail to offer the necessary availability. PostgreSQL obliterates this objection through high availability features that are on-par with Oracle’s offerings, such as multi-master, hot standbys, load-balanced clusters, and log shipping. Enjoy a 99.9999 percent always-on availability with the help of these PostgreSQL features.

PostgreSQL Bi-Directional Replication (BDR)

This structure protects against database node failure in the event that a node goes offline. Set up your database with rolling upgrades, automatic conflict resolution, geographically diverse databases, geo-fencing, and point-in-time recovery.

PostgreSQL makes it easy to scale the cluster size as needed to ensure that your application availability is always at the right level. PostgreSQL BDR is compatible with on-premise and cloud-based solutions. You can set it up through AWS EC2, Azure Node, and GCP Compute Node if you go the cloud-based route.

PostgreSQL Hot Standby

Oracle Data Guard is an excellent all-in-one solution that fulfills many functions for this database technology, including data protection, disaster recovery, and high availability of standby databases. PostgreSQL’s equivalent is called Hot Standby. The Write-ahead log (WAL) files use streaming replication to keep the data up to date and consistent between the master node and the Hot Standbys. You can increase the effectiveness of these clusters by setting up multiple Hot Standbys per master node.

If the master node goes offline, a Hot Standby moves into the position of master node. The other standby databases in the cluster begin streaming from the newly promoted master node. On-premise and cloud-based structures work with Hot Standby. For cloud-based support, you can work with Aurora Master Standby, RDS Multi AZ Read-replica, or AWS Managed Database Services.

PostgreSQL Logical Replication

Oracle GoldenGate is the data replication solution preferred by many organizations working with a wide range of data types. This platform takes heterogeneous data sources and replicates them across many solutions, including non-Oracle databases, through peer-to-peer, bi-directional, unidirectional, and broadcast replication methods.

PostgreSQL Logical Replication doesn’t quite meet the same range of functionality as GoldenGate, but it’s more than enough for many use cases. This feature uses Change Data Capture to support its replication across clusters. The only replication option available is unidirectional and it must be between two PostgreSQL nodes.

You have the flexibility of working with a subset of tables or the complete database, depending on your application and availability requirements. You can consolidate the data of multiple master nodes to a shared standby server, which aids in setting up big data analytics, reporting, and other types of data manipulation. The nodes do not need to be on the same PostgreSQL versions, which is helpful for maintaining legacy databases and other applications that require earlier database versions. If these replication features are too limited, you can use PostgreSQL as your primary database solution, and leverage Oracle GoldenGate to expand your capabilities.

PostgreSQL has earned its position as one of the best enterprise-level database solutions through these high-availability features. Learn more about the benefits of migrating from Oracle to PostgreSQL by downloading our white paper. Don’t Let Oracle High Availability Features Stop You from Migrating to PostgreSQL.