Book Image

PostgreSQL 9 Administration Cookbook - Second Edition

Book Image

PostgreSQL 9 Administration Cookbook - Second Edition

Overview of this book

Table of Contents (19 chapters)
PostgreSQL 9 Administration Cookbook Second Edition
Credits
About the Authors
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Locating the database's system identifier


Each database server has a system identifier assigned when the database is initialized (created). The server identifier remains the same if the server is backed up, cloned, and so on.

Many actions on the server are keyed to the system identifier, and you may be asked to provide this information when you report a fault.

In this recipe, you will learn how to display the system identifier.

Getting ready

Connect as the postgres OS user, or another user with execute privileges on the server software.

How to do it…

We just have to launch the following command:

pg_controldata <data-directory> | grep "system identifier"
Database system identifier:           5558338346489861223

Note that the preceding syntax will not work on Debian or Ubuntu systems, for the same reasons explained for initdb in the Locating the database server files recipe. However, in this case, there is no postgresql-common alternative, so if you must run pg_controldata, you have to specify...