PostgreSQL Administration

Table of Contents
Introduction............................................................................................6
What this course is about...................................................................7
Installing & Configuring PostgreSQL....................................................8
Pre-installation Tasks.........................................................................9
Downloading and Installing PostgreSQL........................................11
Using Configure Arguments............................................................14
Configuring PostgreSQL to Start on Boot.......................................19
Configuring PostgreSQL for Network Access................................21
Exercises..........................................................................................26
Configuring Secure Access
Using OpenSSL....................................................................................29
OpenSSL Benefits............................................................................30
Enabling SSL...................................................................................31
Issuing Certificates...........................................................................32
Configuring the postmaster For SSL...............................................35
Exercises..........................................................................................37
Using the psql Client............................................................................39
Connecting to PostgreSQL..............................................................40
psql Meta-Commands......................................................................46
Psql Internal Variables.....................................................................53
Exercises..........................................................................................56

Creating & Managing Views................................................................59

Creating Views................................................................................60
Setting Rules for Views...................................................................61
Exercises..........................................................................................64
Creating & Managing Indexes..............................................................66
Understanding Indexes.....................................................................67
PostgreSQL Index Types............................................................69
Creating Indexes..............................................................................71
Indexes on Expressions....................................................................73
Partial Indexes..................................................................................74
Exercises..........................................................................................75
Transactions and Concurrency.............................................................77
Transactions.....................................................................................78
Transaction Isolation........................................................................79
Managing Database Privileges.............................................................82
PostgreSQL Roles............................................................................83
User Roles........................................................................................85
Altering User Roles.........................................................................86
Other Role Properties.......................................................................89
Role Examples............................................................................91
Assigning Users to Roles.................................................................92

One Copley Parkway, Suite 210 Morrisville, NC 27560 Phone: 919.463.0999 Fax: 866-229-3386
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Copyright 2004-2010 Open Technology Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
Copying all or part of this manual, or distributing such copies, is strictly prohibited.

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PostgreSQL Administration

Understanding Role Access.............................................................93

Exercises..........................................................................................95
Access Control with GRANT...............................................................97
The GRANT and REVOKE Statements..........................................98
GRANT Options..............................................................................99
Granting Column Level Privileges................................................102
Exercises........................................................................................103
PostgreSQL's Data Organization........................................................105
PostgreSQL Storage.......................................................................106
Managing Table Space Usage........................................................108
PostgreSQL Table Information.................................................110
PostgreSQL Log Directories..........................................................112
Other Directories............................................................................113
Managing PostgreSQL Clusters.....................................................116
Exercises........................................................................................118
Creating & Managing
PostgreSQL Clusters, Tablespaces & Databases................................120
PostgreSQL Tablespaces...............................................................121
Using CREATE TABLESPACE...................................................122
Where Objects Go..........................................................................124
Using CREATE DATABASE.......................................................126
Exercises........................................................................................130
PostgreSQL Schemas.........................................................................132
The Schema....................................................................................133

Managing Schemas........................................................................135
Managing Schema Views..............................................................137
Exercises........................................................................................140
PostgreSQL Logging..........................................................................142
Server Log Files.............................................................................143
Using CSV-Format Log Output.....................................................146
Configuring When to Log Messages.............................................148
Configuring What to Log...............................................................153
Changing Settings..........................................................................158
Exercises........................................................................................159
Backup and Recovery.........................................................................161
Backup using pg_dump.................................................................162
Using pg_dumpall..........................................................................167
Restoring Files with pg_restore and psql.......................................169
Performing File-Level Backups.....................................................171
Exercises........................................................................................172
Continuous Archiving
and Point in Time Recovery (PITR)...................................................174
PostgreSQL Write-Ahead Logs.....................................................175
Making a Base Backup..................................................................179
Recovery Using A Continuous Archive Backup...........................181
Exercises........................................................................................185
Using the PostgreSQL Query Optimizer............................................187
Analyzing and Optimizing Queries...............................................188

One Copley Parkway, Suite 210 Morrisville, NC 27560 Phone: 919.463.0999 Fax: 866-229-3386
www.opentechnologygroup.com
Copyright 2004-2010 Open Technology Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
Copying all or part of this manual, or distributing such copies, is strictly prohibited.

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PostgreSQL Administration

Using EXPLAIN to View Execution Plans...................................190

Understanding PostgreSQL's Query Operators.............................193
The Seq Scan operator...........................................................194
The Index Scan Operator..........................................................196
The Sort Operator......................................................................197
The Unique Operator.................................................................199
The Limit Operator...................................................................200
The Aggregate Operator............................................................201
The Append Operator................................................................202
The Result Operator..................................................................203
The Join Operators....................................................................204
The Group and HashAggregate Operators................................206
The Subquery Scan and Subplan Operators..............................207
The TID Scan Operator.............................................................208
The Materialize Operator..........................................................210
Setop Operators.........................................................................211
Improving Query Performance......................................................212
Exercises........................................................................................220
Server Monitoring & Performance Tuning........................................222
Understanding BGWRITER & Shared Buffers.............................223
Server Configuration Variables.....................................................226
Query Optimizer Parameters..........................................................230
Gathering Performance Statistics...................................................234
Disk Performance Tuning..............................................................236

Server Information.........................................................................237
PostgreSQL Visibility Maps..........................................................238
Using The Auto-Vacuum Daemon
............................................................................................................239
About Auto-Vacuum......................................................................240
Exercises........................................................................................245
Improving Network Performance
with PgBouncer..................................................................................246
About PgBouncer...........................................................................247
Pooling Modes...............................................................................248
Downloading & Installing PgBouncer...........................................249
Configuring PgBouncer.................................................................250
Configuration Database Parameters..........................................251
Configuring PgBouncer General Parameters............................254
Setting Logging Parameters......................................................257
Other Configuration Parameters...............................................258
Creating an Authorization File.......................................................260
Launching & Managing PgBouncer..............................................261
Exercises........................................................................................262
Full Text Indexing..............................................................................264
About Full Text Search..................................................................265
About tsearch.................................................................................267
Setting The Text Search Language................................................269
Tsearch & The SQL Statement......................................................271

One Copley Parkway, Suite 210 Morrisville, NC 27560 Phone: 919.463.0999 Fax: 866-229-3386
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Copyright 2004-2010 Open Technology Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
Copying all or part of this manual, or distributing such copies, is strictly prohibited.

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PostgreSQL Administration

About Queries................................................................................274
Text Search Operators....................................................................275
Text Search Functions...................................................................276
Indexes...........................................................................................278
Ranking..........................................................................................279
Exercises........................................................................................280
Enabling Hot Standby.........................................................................281
About Hot Standby........................................................................282
Set up WAL Archiving..................................................................283

SSH Key Based Authentication.....................................................284

Configuring Recovery.conf for Hot Standby.................................286
Starting the Secondary Node.........................................................289
Configuring Standby Limits..........................................................290
About the WAL Sender.............................................................291
Other Hot Standby Notes...............................................................293
Questions?..........................................................................................294
Where to Get Help.........................................................................295
The Payroll Database Structure.....................................................296

One Copley Parkway, Suite 210 Morrisville, NC 27560 Phone: 919.463.0999 Fax: 866-229-3386
www.opentechnologygroup.com
Copyright 2004-2010 Open Technology Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
Copying all or part of this manual, or distributing such copies, is strictly prohibited.

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