Report: Oracle shuts down PostgreSQL test servers

According to a report, Oracle has closed down the servers that Sun Microsystems had been contributing to the build farm for PostgreSQL. The open source database, which was cited in the European Commission's clearing of the Oracle acquisition as a "competitive force in the marketplace", has now switched to using servers contributed by Dave Page, a part time employee of EnterpriseDB. EnterpriseDB bases their software on PostgreSQL and has investors that include IBM and Red Hat.

The build farm, comprised of systems running Linux, Unix, Windows and other operating systems, is configured to automatically download the latest source code for PostgreSQL, compile and run tests and report back on the results. This allows developers to quickly see if there are problems running PostgreSQL on particular operating systems. The part of the build farm originally contributed by Sun Microsystems, comprised of three servers, was used to test PostgreSQL on Solaris. Oracle shut down these servers at the start of July, without any advance warning to the PostgreSQL developers who had to find replacement hardware to continue testing on Oracle's Solaris.

(djwm)