F22 Self Contained Change: Database Server Role

[Stephen Gallagher]

On Tue, 2015-01-20 at 08:03 -0600, Chris Adams wrote:
> Once upon a time, Jaroslav Reznik <jreznik at redhat.com> said:
> > The Fedora Server Product will provide a standard deployment mechanism for a 
> > Linux Database Server (powered by the postgresql project). 
> 
> How about just calling this the PostgreSQL Server role?  Why should this
> get the generic "database" name (what if the MariaDB maintainers want to
> make a Database Server as well for example)?  No matter the engine,
> users have to know what they are connecting to; there is no generic
> "talk to the database server" protocol, so I don't see a reason to try
> to make a generic database server role.


The intent is that we plan to offer one "official" Database Server Role
for Fedora Server. By electing to use the generic name, we provide a
subtle indication that this is the one that you should code against. A
MariaDB or MySQL Role is certainly welcome, but by a strong majority
vote in the WG, we picked PostgreSQL as the technology that Fedora
Server will be backing directly. Thus, it gets to have the generic name.

One of the core focuses of Fedora Server is to simplify things. It's
meant to help less-experienced users of Linux get up and running with
common activities more quickly. Providing the "PostgreSQL" role and the
"MariaDB" role means that we've forced the user to do additional
research to figure out what they want. However, if we name one "Database
Server", we are implicitly telling the user: "use this one, unless you
have a specific need".

Yes, this amounts to "picking a winner". This is done in the name of
simplification, both in the choices that the inexperienced user has to
make and in the level of resources needed to support things. (If people
tend to use this database more often than the others, then it becomes
easier to maintain and build up a useful knowledge base).

I'll repeat, so I'm clear: If the SIGs around MariaDB, MySQL, MongoDB
and others would like to create a Server Role, they are welcome to do so
(and I will quite happily review those patches for inclusion!).
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