Book Image

Learn PostgreSQL

By : Luca Ferrari, Enrico Pirozzi
Book Image

Learn PostgreSQL

By: Luca Ferrari, Enrico Pirozzi

Overview of this book

PostgreSQL is one of the fastest-growing open source object-relational database management systems (DBMS) in the world. As well as being easy to use, it’s scalable and highly efficient. In this book, you’ll explore PostgreSQL 12 and 13 and learn how to build database solutions using it. Complete with hands-on tutorials, this guide will teach you how to achieve the right database design required for a reliable environment. You'll learn how to install and configure a PostgreSQL server and even manage users and connections. The book then progresses to key concepts of relational databases, before taking you through the Data Definition Language (DDL) and commonly used DDL commands. To build on your skills, you’ll understand how to interact with the live cluster, create database objects, and use tools to connect to the live cluster. You’ll then get to grips with creating tables, building indexes, and designing your database schema. Later, you'll explore the Data Manipulation Language (DML) and server-side programming capabilities of PostgreSQL using PL/pgSQL, before learning how to monitor, test, and troubleshoot your database application to ensure high-performance and reliability. By the end of this book, you'll be well-versed with the Postgres database and be able to set up your own PostgreSQL instance and use it to build robust solutions.

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Table of Contents (27 chapters)
Preface
Preface
Who this book is for
What this book covers
To get the most out of this book
Get in touch
1
Section 1: Getting Started
Section 1: Getting Started
Free Chapter
2
Introduction to PostgreSQL
Introduction to PostgreSQL
Technical requirements
PostgreSQL at a glance
Exploring PostgreSQL terminology
Installing PostgreSQL 12 or higher
Summary
References
3
Getting to Know Your Cluster
Getting to Know Your Cluster
Technical requirements
Managing your cluster
Connecting to the cluster
Exploring the disk layout of PGDATA
Exploring configuration files and parameters
Summary
References
4
Managing Users and Connections
Managing Users and Connections
Introduction to users and groups
Managing roles
Managing incoming connections at the role level
Summary
References
5
Section 2: Interacting with the Database
Section 2: Interacting with the Database
6
Basic Statements
Basic Statements
Technical requirements
Setting up our developing environment
Creating and managing databases
Managing tables
Understanding basic table manipulation statements
Summary
References
7
Advanced Statements
Advanced Statements
Exploring the SELECT statement
Using UPSERT
Exploring CTEs
Summary
References
8
Window Functions
Window Functions
Using basic statement window functions
Using advanced statement window functions
Summary
References
9
Server-Side Programming
Server-Side Programming
Exploring data types
Exploring functions and languages
Summary
References
10
Triggers and Rules
Triggers and Rules
Exploring rules in PostgreSQL
Managing triggers in PostgreSQL
Event triggers
Summary
References
11
Partitioning
Partitioning
Basic concepts
Exploring partitioning using inheritance
Exploring declarative partitioning
Summary
References
12
Section 3: Administering the Cluster
Section 3: Administering the Cluster
13
Users, Roles, and Database Security
Users, Roles, and Database Security
Understanding roles
Access control lists
Granting and revoking permissions
Row-level security
Role password encryption
SSL connections
Summary
References
14
Transactions, MVCC, WALs, and Checkpoints
Transactions, MVCC, WALs, and Checkpoints
Technical requirements
Introducing transactions
Transaction isolation levels
Explaining MVCC
Savepoints
Deadlocks
How PostgreSQL handles persistency and consistency: WALs
VACUUM
Summary
References
15
Extending the Database - the Extension Ecosystem
Extending the Database - the Extension Ecosystem
Introducing extensions
Managing extensions
Exploring the PGXN client
Installing extensions
Creating your own extension
Summary
References
16
Indexes and Performance Optimization
Indexes and Performance Optimization
Technical requirements
Execution of a statement
Indexes
The EXPLAIN statement
An example of query tuning
ANALYZE and how to update statistics
Auto-explain
Summary
References
17
Logging and Auditing
Logging and Auditing
Technical requirements
Introduction to logging
Extracting information from logs – PgBadger
Implementing auditing
Summary
References
18
Backup and Restore
Backup and Restore
Technical requirements
Introducing various types of backups and restores
Exploring logical backups
Exploring physical backups
Summary
Further reading
19
Configuration and Monitoring
Configuration and Monitoring
Technical requirements
Cluster configuration
Monitoring the cluster
Advanced statistics with pg_stat_statements
Summary
Further Reading
20
Section 4: Replication
Section 4: Replication
21
Physical Replication
Physical Replication
Exploring basic concepts
Learning WAL archiving and PITR
Managing streaming replication
Summary
References
22
Logical Replication
Logical Replication
Understanding basic concepts
Exploring logical replication setup
Summary
References
23
Section 5: The PostegreSQL Ecosystem
Section 5: The PostegreSQL Ecosystem
24
Useful Tools and Extensions
Useful Tools and Extensions
Exploring the pg_trgm extension
Using foreign data wrappers and the postgres_fdw extension
Exploring the btree_gin extension
Managing the pgbackrest tool
Summary
References
25
Toward PostgreSQL 13
Toward PostgreSQL 13
Introducing PostgreSQL 13's new features
Upgrading to PostgreSQL 13
Summary
References
26
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Managing the pgbackrest tool

In Chapter 18, Logical Replication, we talked about disaster recovery and PITR, and we saw how to conduct them programmatically. In the real world, a DBA has to manage multiple PostgreSQL servers and it is useful to have some tools to make life easier. The open source world offers us a lot of solutions to address disaster recovery in an easy way. Some of these tools are listed here:

  • WAL-E
  • pgbarman
  • OmniPITR

There are many others, and at https://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/Binary_Replication_Tools, you can find a good comparison of them all.

In this section, we will give a nod to pgbackrest. The pgbackrest tool is a tool for PostgreSQL disaster recovery and PITR, and it has been designed for heavy load servers. Its official URL is https://pgbackrest.org/.

These are some of the features of the tool:

  • It supports parallel backup and parallel restore.
  • It can make full base backups, incremental backups, or differential backups.
  • We can choose to make local operations...
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