Re: hundreds of schema vs hundreds of databases

[Guy Rouillier <guyr-ml1(at)burntmail(dot)com>]

Albe Laurenz wrote:
> Advantages of many databases:
> - Each database is smaller.
> - No danger of one user accessing another user's data (because of
>   misconfigured permissions and similar).
> - Guaranteed independence of each user's data.
> - More scalable: If you decide that one machine or one cluster
>   is not enough to handle the load, you can easily transfer some
>   of the databases somewhere else.
>
> Advantages of one database with many schemata:
> - Fewer databases to administrate.

Using different databases for each user incurs the full overhead of 
creating and maintaining a database: all the system tables and all the 
memory required to keep a database open.  If the OP is allowing direct 
SQL access to each user, then the risks you identify above must be 
addressed, but tbey can fairly simply by using scripts to create each 
new user.  I'd opt for using schemas unless there is a compelling 
evidence that different databases are required.

--
Guy Rouillier