Can I use PostgreSQL with Nerves?

[axelson]

@AstonJ

What kind of stuff will you use the server for? I’ve been thinking of ways to use Nerves myself so curious what you will be using it for

I’m mainly thinking of using nerves to create a simple (and easy to “administer”) Linux server out of a raspberry pi and some hard drives that I have laying around. It’s really kind of my other topic restated: Can you use nerves to deploy a cloud-based server?

Although I have also thought about trying to build an automated alarm clock that would open up the blinds in the morning. Just not sure how to find a compatible RF remote.

@peerreynders

But is it a hard drive/SSD? Given
Clarification on DETS/Nerves issue mentioned at ElixirConf
I’d imagine that PostgreSQL might drive a flash drive pretty quickly into the ground.

I haven’t decided yet but I’ll probably just do a spinning hard drive since I have a few of those. Although I’m not too worried about PostgreSQL wearing out an SSD, I think often times that type of concern (with SSD’s) is a bit overblown and this server will be strictly for my personal use so it won’t get a lot of activity.

@michaelkschmidt

It should work fine for your use case. The reason there is not a lot of PosrgreSQL with Nerves is that it does not handle sudden power failures all that well. This is normally a deal breaker for embedded devices

If all you want SQL + Ecto, Connor has done a great job of fixing the Ecto adapter for SQLite https://github.com/ConnorRigby/sqlite_ecto2 . It would be much easier to add to a Nerves project than PostgreSQL.

Yeah I may end up relenting, but PostgreSQL is much nicer to develop with than SQLite (although I haven’t used SQLite in ages so maybe I should try it out again).