Hi, Tim: We use Oracle here at the State University of New York at Buffalo (AKA University at Buffalo) because DSpace infrastructure is managed by central IT, and they do not support PostgreSQL. We have had DSpace since 2009 and both our dev and prod sites have always been on Oracle for the DB piece. I am the current DSpace administrator and work in the University Libraries. Because of the Flyway migration bug in v.6.x forward, we are stuck on v.5.10, and we have no in-house developers who can edit the source release code to allow us to upgrade beyond that. (See the comment I logged 2018-10-10 on: https://github.com/DSpace/DSpace/pull/1954)
I would very much like to know if I need to begin advocating or pushing for PostgreSQL via my leadership if this bug is not going to be fixed, as we are sort of stuck. It is extremely difficult to get central IT to support something only one unit at the entire university uses, and I was told we are an Oracle shop and that was our only option for the DB piece. In summary, we are a concerned Oracle DSpace stakeholder but have no in-house developers to offer support for Oracle, which is why we are beholden to the DSpace source release and are currently stuck on 5.10. Thanks very much, Karlen Chase Head of Institutional Repository Services University at Buffalo On Thursday, December 9, 2021 at 3:59:09 PM UTC-5 Tim Donohue wrote: > All, > > I wanted to let the entire DSpace Community be aware of developer > discussions regarding our ability to continue supporting Oracle database > backends in DSpace. > > Below, you'll find an email I sent to our DSpace Developer mailing list ( > [email protected]) in mid-November requesting volunteers to help > us with Oracle support activities. After 3 weeks, I've yet to find any > developer volunteers and none of our current core developers or committers > have Oracle expertise or use Oracle at their institutions. > > If your institution currently uses DSpace with an Oracle database backend > *and* is interested in helping ensure DSpace can continue to support > Oracle, please get in touch. *Without Oracle volunteers, we may need to > drop support for Oracle databases and recommend all existing Oracle-based > sites migrate to PostgreSQL* (by using a third-party migration tool like > Ora2Pg <https://ora2pg.darold.net/> or similar). > > (Additionally, if any of you have successfully migrated a DSpace site from > Oracle to PostgreSQL, I'd be interested to hear of any tips you may have. > It may help us start to document Oracle to PostgreSQL migration tips for > others who wish to do the same.) > > Obviously, we'll send out a formal announcement if any Oracle support > changes are made. > > Thanks, > > Tim > > ------------------------------ > *From:* Tim Donohue <[email protected]> > *Sent:* Wednesday, November 17, 2021 5:25 PM > *To:* DSpace Developers <[email protected]> > *Subject:* Who uses Oracle with DSpace? Anyone interested in helping > retain/maintain Oracle support? > > All, > > I'm curious who on this developer list may use an Oracle database for > their Production installation of DSpace. > > I've been noticing that it has become more difficult to locate any DSpace > developers with decent Oracle experience to help us debug or fix > Oracle-related issues (e.g. https://github.com/DSpace/DSpace/issues/8008 > and https://github.com/DSpace/DSpace/issues/7958 and testing PR > https://github.com/DSpace/DSpace/pull/8028). > > So, if you are using Oracle in Production, and would be interested in > helping review, debug or test Orace related fixes/issues, please get in > touch. > > If we are unable to find Oracle developer help soon, *I feel we > must consider recommending (to DSpace Steering) that we stop support for > Oracle databases* (effective immediately)*. * It's increasingly obvious > that most DSpace sites do not use Oracle. It's also obvious that we've not > been successful in testing/stabilizing DSpace upgrades or new features on > Oracle backends. Plus, as we all know, Oracle databases have never aligned > with our open-source licensing (in that it requires a paid license to use > in Production). So, it may be time to admit that Oracle support may no > longer be necessary or reasonable for DSpace. > > Thoughts welcome! Please do get in touch if continued Oracle support is of > interest to you. > > Tim > > *--* > > *Tim Donohue* > > Technical Lead, DSpace > > [email protected] > > Lyrasis.org <https://www.lyrasis.org/> | DSpace.org <http://dspace.org> > > > -- All messages to this mailing list should adhere to the Code of Conduct: https://www.lyrasis.org/about/Pages/Code-of-Conduct.aspx --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "DSpace Community" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/dspace-community/f06b7437-c7a1-42b1-8b64-3f46ce7ad16bn%40googlegroups.com.
