[NBLUG/talk] Transferring data from Oracle to an open-source database

[Lincoln Peters]

I just remembered one final capability, and this is one that would 
definitely prevent me from using the "express edition" of Oracle.  I 
need to be able to replicate this database across multiple computers: a 
central server and one or more laptop computers or other portable 
devices.  I haven't studied the EULA for Oracle in detail, but I suspect 
that this would count as running on more than one CPU.  In addition, 
since laptop computers are involved, it will not always be possible to 
synchronize the replicas immediately after one mirror is changed.

Any thoughts?  Some quick research indicates that MySQL supports 
replication, but only allows changes to be made on the server (not 
useful if you have more than one field biologist using a laptop to 
survey an area!).  Perhaps I could get the results I want using 
clustering, but it looks like clustering was built for an entirely 
different set of goals, so I can't tell if it would work in this 
scenario.  On the other hand, PostgreSQL seems to support an "update 
anywhere" style of replication via a third-party utility called 
Replicator <http://pgreplicator.sourceforge.net/>, and thus seems to do 
exactly what I'm looking for.

Has anyone used replication with any of these databases?  Any advice 
would be greatly appreciated.


-- 
Lincoln Peters
<sampln at sbcglobal.net>

Sometimes when you look into his eyes you get the feeling that someone
else is driving.
		-- David Letterman