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I need to publish raster and vector data through GeoServer WMS service and I have already chosen PostGIS as datasource to keep vector data.

Now I would like to know what is the best practice to work with raster data. I see two options:

  • store raster data in PostGis and then use ImageMosaicJDBC or Postgis Raster Plug In (I read about some limitations and instability)
  • store raster data somewhere on file system and setup GeoServer to read data from there.

I have little experience with GIS and I wonder if someone could suggest the best choice?

Mapperz
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Fabrizio D'Ammassa
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  • Which Version of PostGIS are you using - raster2pgsql for postgis 2.0 will load RASTERS into Postgis - GDAL is supported so you can have any raster format on this list load - http://www.gdal.org/formats_list.html see http://postgis.refractions.net/documentation/manual-2.0/RT_FAQ.html#id2988243 – Mapperz Jul 04 '12 at 13:41
  • The problem is that you can setup Postgis just as vector data source and not as raster. You can do that only via plugins. – Fabrizio D'Ammassa Jul 04 '12 at 14:04
  • You can bypass WMS and serve it directly - http://www.bostongis.com/blog/index.php?/archives/174-Minimalist-Web-based-ASP.NET-PostGIS-2.0-Spatial-GeometryRaster-Viewer.html – Mapperz Jul 04 '12 at 14:11
  • Raster data must be served by GeoServer WMS. It is a requirement I have to fulfill. Why don't store raster data on filesystem and keep just vector data on PostGis? – Fabrizio D'Ammassa Jul 04 '12 at 14:16

1 Answers1

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I think the second option will be better. There is a lot of production deployment experience with GeoServer using filesystem based maps / tiles. As you've already deduced, PostGIS raster doesn't yet have that level of production use.

That isn't to say that PostGIS raster might not be a great case for some other uses - especially if you had a scenario where you're using it for WMS and other operation (e.g. via a thick client, or for some custom web application). It just doesn't seem worth the complexity for the scenario you are describing.

BradHards
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