PostgreSQL, BootCamp, and You

[NimhOfJoy]

Hello,

So I'm currently in the process of bootcamping my computer. While I'm mostly going to be playing poker on the Windows side, my database is currently installed and hosted on the Mac side. I was wondering if it was possible to connect to this database from the PC side instead of having to copy the database back and forth. What about the other way around (hosted on the PC side, connected to on the Mac side)?

[kraada]

There isn't really an easy way to set that up I'm afraid.

[NimhOfJoy]

What about this question: is it possible to connect to a database on a PC that's hosted on a Mac? How would you go about that?

[WhiteRider]

When you're booting into a separate "computer" each time this isn't possible as the "other" computer (operating system) isn't running. If you run one operating system inside a virtual machine running on the other then you can share databases because both systems are running.

[NimhOfJoy]

When you're booting into a separate "computer" each time this isn't possible as the "other" computer (operating system) isn't running. If you run one operating system inside a virtual machine running on the other then you can share databases because both systems are running.

Oh I see - PostgreSQL needs to run on the computer the database is hosted on. So if I had a seperate machine just to host PostgreSQL on my LAN, it would be connectable by both machines? Granted, this poses its own problems (latency, playing poker off the network), but just considering my options.

[kraada]

Yes that would work. If you decide to go that route, this tutorial will be useful for you.

[NimhOfJoy]

Is it possible to have the database itself hosted on a hard drive different from where PostgreSQL is running?

[kraada]

It's possible to use an external drive and I'd imagine a mapped network drive as well, but you'd need to make sure that latency was very low. eSATA would be fast enough but USB certainly wouldn't.

In this case you'd need to change the startup parameters of PostgreSQL to point to the new data directory and you'd need to initialize the database manually.

[NimhOfJoy]

This is kind of a separate question - until I figure out what I'm going to do, I'm just using DropBox to copy the DB backups back and forth between the two boots. However, it appears the PostgreSQL version on the Mac is one higher (8.4.x) than the version on the PC (8.3.x).

A) Is it possible for the DB to work across both versions?

B) If not, how do I upgrade the PC version? I didn't see any instructions going from 8.3 to 8.4. FWIW, I don't have any DB on the PC side yet at all (or least not anything I need to keep), so I have some leeway in terms of F@*%ing things up.

[kraada]

You can't have one data folder be used for both an 8.3.x and 8.4.x installations. However, since you're shuffling backups back and forth upgrading will be less painful for you than it would be for others.

After you have the backup you want, uninstall 8.3 completely and download the latest 8.4 from here. Connect PokerTracker to it and then restore your backup and you'll be all set.