I think this question has been asked number of times. However, I am
looking for some specific information. Perhaps some of you can help
close the gap. Or perhaps you can point me towards right direction.

I am comparing open source databases such as Ingress, MySQL, SmallSQL,
SQLite, SQL Anywhere, and Postgre SQL and some of the commercial
databases such as Microsoft and Oracle.

Information I need about these databases is as follows:
1. Do these databases have data Clustering capabilities?
1a. If yes, what mechanism is used such as shared disk, share nothing,
etc.
2. Do these dBs have Security features?
2a. If yes, what security features are supported? For instance do they
support encryption or SSL connection?
3. Which databases perform well, and what are the criteria for their
performance metrics?
4. Do they have inbuilt load balance capabilities?

I want to thank everyone for taking your time to read this
correspondence. I will also greatly appreciate your efforts in sharing
your thoughts.

Regards,
Manish

On 27.11.2007 22:03, Manish wrote:
You should be able to easily answer 1, 2 and 4 from vendor web sites and
/ or documentation. For 3 there are numerous benchmarks around - also
to be found on the web.

Cheers

robert

<snip>
Robert

As you suggested, that was my first attempt.

Although while querying about this information, wealth of details can
be found. I have not been able to answer get all of my answers for
each of the databases. That's why I have requested help from our
database community.

Regards,
Manish

"Do these databases have data clustering capabilities?" The first
question is what is meant by "data clustering capability"
A cluster is a group of computers, called nodes, that work together to
support resources such as a DBMS. The usage of the resources is
independent of the actual nodes supporting the resource. Depending on
the implementation of the resource, there are three architectures:
1. Single Node - A resource use system resources from only one node
at any point in time.
2. Multiple Node - The resource uses system resources from multiple
nodes at any point in time.
3. Load Balance - There are independent resource providers, each
running only one node at any point in time and a router sends requests
to the independent resource provider.

Multiple Node DBMS include Oracle, DB2, Teradata and Greenplum. All
other DBMS resources are Single Node.

Multiple Node DBMS have significant challenges including:
1. Set-up and configuration is extremely complex.
2 Scalability is extremely poor - see www.tcp.org for some
benchmarks.

Single Node DBMSs also have some challenges including:
1. Set-up and configuration is complex. For example, installing the
SQL Server DBMS on a non-clustered server will take less than 2 hours
but on a cluster will take about 8 hours.
2. False Failovers can occur. When the DBMS is under a very high
workload and does not respond to the cluster check for resource
availability in a prompt manner, the cluster may fail-over SQL Server
to another node causing an outage during the fail-over. Contra wise,
increasing the wait time for the alive response causes an outage
because the fail-over is deferred.

To increase throughput, an alternative solution is Federated database
architecture. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federated_database.
Homogeneous Federated database are those where all member DBMSs are
identical (vendor and release) and semantic differences are
minimal. Homogeneous work very well.

Heterogeneous Federated databases have at least on difference in DBMS
product, structure, semantics of data, the constraints supported or
query language. Cohera is a heterogeneous federated database product
and is currently owned by Oracle. This product has not been a
commercial success.