The LAMP Stack Dilemma: Speed vs. Integrity
It is 3:00 AM. Your pager is buzzing. The client's e-commerce store in Oslo has seized up. Apache is maxing out child processes, and `top` shows high load averages. The culprit? A locked database table.
If you have been in the hosting trenches as long as I have, you know this story. The database is the heart of your application, yet most developers treat it like a black box. In the Linux hosting world, the choice usually boils down to two giants: MySQL and PostgreSQL.
Many just `apt-get install mysql-server` because it is the default for WordPress and Joomla. That is lazy engineering. Today, we are stripping away the hype to look at the raw mechanics of these systems as they stand in early 2009.
MySQL 5.1: The Speed Demon (With a Catch)
MySQL is ubiquitous. It is the 'M' in LAMP. For read-heavy workloads—think news sites, blogs, or simple forums—it is blistering fast. But that speed often comes from the default storage engine: MyISAM.
Here is the problem: MyISAM uses table-level locking. When you write to a table, MySQL locks the entire table. No one else can read or write until that operation finishes. If you have a high-traffic site with frequent updates, your concurrent users are going to queue up fast.
Pro Tip: If you are stuck with MySQL for a transactional site, switch your tables to InnoDB immediately. In yourmy.cnf, adjustinnodb_buffer_pool_sizeto utilize 70-80% of your VPS memory if it is a dedicated database node. Do not leave it at the default 8MB.
PostgreSQL 8.3: The Data Fortress
PostgreSQL (or Postgres) has a reputation for being complex. It is. But it is also strictly compliant with ACID standards. Unlike MyISAM, Postgres uses MVCC (Multi-Version Concurrency Control).
This means readers do not block writers, and writers do not block readers. For complex applications requiring data integrity—financial ledgers, inventory management, or enterprise CRM systems—Postgres is the only logical choice. Version 8.3, released last year, significantly improved performance with HOT (Heap-Only Tuples), reducing the I/O penalty that used to plague earlier versions.
Comparison: The 2009 Landscape
| Feature | MySQL 5.1 (MyISAM) | PostgreSQL 8.3 |
|---|---|---|
| Locking | Table-level (High contention) | Row-level (MVCC) |
| Transactions | No (unless InnoDB) | Yes (ACID Compliant) |
| Extensibility | Limited | High (PL/pgSQL, Python, Perl) |
| Replication | Master-Slave (Simple) | Trigger-based / Log Shipping |
The Hardware Bottleneck: It is Always Disk I/O
You can tune shared_buffers or key_buffer_size all day, but if your underlying storage is slow, your database will crawl. Databases are I/O vampires. They demand random read/write access constantly.
This is where virtualization architecture matters. Many budget hosts oversell their nodes, cramming hundreds of containers onto a single SATA drive. The result? "IOwait" spikes that kill your application's responsiveness.
At CoolVDS, we refuse to play that game. We utilize Xen HVM virtualization. This provides true isolation. More importantly, our storage arrays in our Oslo datacenter are built on 15,000 RPM SAS drives in RAID-10 configuration. We do not oversell I/O. When you run a SELECT * with a heavy JOIN, the disk throughput is actually there to support it.
Data Privacy in Norway
Latency is not the only metric. If you are handling customer data for Norwegian businesses, you are bound by the Personal Data Act (Personopplysningsloven) and the EU Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC. Hosting your database outside the EEA (European Economic Area) introduces legal headaches regarding safe harbor.
Keeping your data on Norwegian soil, protected by Datatilsynet regulations, is not just good performance—it is good compliance. CoolVDS infrastructure is physically located in Oslo, ensuring your packets don't have to cross the Atlantic to get a simple query result.
Final Verdict
If you are building a simple WordPress blog, stick with MySQL 5.1. It is fast, lightweight, and there is a massive community around it.
However, if you are building a custom application where data loss is unacceptable, or where you need complex stored procedures, PostgreSQL 8.3 is the professional's choice. Yes, the learning curve is steeper. Yes, `vacuuming` is annoying. But it will not corrupt your data when the power fluctuates.
Whatever you choose, do not let cheap, slow storage strangle your database. You can have the best schema in the world, but it means nothing without the IOPS to back it up.
Need raw I/O power? Deploy a Xen-based instance on CoolVDS today and see the difference RAID-10 SAS makes for your query execution times.