Book Image

PostgreSQL Administration Cookbook, 9.5/9.6 Edition - Third Edition

Book Image

PostgreSQL Administration Cookbook, 9.5/9.6 Edition - Third Edition

Overview of this book

PostgreSQL is a powerful opensource database management system; now recognized as the expert's choice for a wide range of applications, it has an enviable reputation for performance and stability. PostgreSQL provides an integrated feature set comprising relational database features, object-relational, text search, Geographical Info Systems, analytical tools for big data and JSON/XML document management. Starting with short and simple recipes, you will soon dive into core features, such as configuration, server control, tables, and data. You will tackle a variety of problems a database administrator usually encounters, from creating tables to managing views, from improving performance to securing your database, and from using monitoring tools to using storage engines. Recipes based on important topics such as high availability, concurrency, replication, backup and recovery, as well as diagnostics and troubleshooting are also given special importance. By the end of this book, you will have all the knowledge you need to run, manage, and maintain PostgreSQL efficiently.
Table of Contents (13 chapters)

Introduction

PostgreSQL prefers regular maintenance, so please read the recipe that discusses maintenance planning (the last one).

We recognize that you're here for a reason and are looking for a quick solution to your needs. You're probably thinking, fix me first, and I'll plan later. So off we go!

PostgreSQL provides a utility command named VACUUM, which is a jokey name for a garbage collector that sweeps up all the bad things and fixes them — or at least, most of them. That's the single most important thing you need to remember to do — I say single because closely connected to that is the ANALYZE command, which collects optimizer statistics. It's possible to run VACUUM and ANALYZE as a single joint command, VACUUM ANALYZE, and those actions are automatically executed for you when appropriate by autovacuum, a special background process...