PMDAPOSTGRESQL(1)

NAME
pmdapostgresql - PostgreSQL database PMDA

DESCRIPTION
pmdapostgresql is a Performance Co-Pilot (PCP) Performance Metrics Domain Agent (PMDA) which extracts live performance data from a running PostgreSQL database server.

Many of the statistics available from a PostgreSQL server may not be enabled by default. Refer to the online documentation https://postgresql.org/docs/current/static/monitoring-stats.html which describes each of the available parameters related to statistics collection and how to enable them.

CONFIGURATION
pmdapostgresql reads a mandatory ini-style configuration file:

    $PCP_PMDAS_DIR/postgresql/postgresql.conf

This file currently contains only one section [authentication] which specifies values for the following settings (their default values are shown in parenthesis):

host (local)
    Hostname to connect to.

port (5432)
    Port number to use.

dbname (postgres)
    Database name.

username (postgres)
    Username to run as and to connect to the database.

password (password)
    Password to connect to the database.

osuser (unset)
    Operating system user the PMDA runs as.

The defaults (as above) will result in the PMDA running as the current user, using a UNIX domain socket connection to the PostgreSQL server on the localhost.

If osuser is not specified in the configuration file, the PMDA will run as the current user. A host specification of local will use a UNIX domain socket, which uses peer authentication, see comments in the pg_hba.conf file. In this case, the osuser setting should probably be set to postgres.

It is generally not necessary to alter the default configuration file for monitoring the local PostgreSQL server instance with a default server configuration. Note that the port number is required even for a UNIX domain connection because it's used as the socket filename by the server.

INSTALLATION
To install, the following must be done as root:

    # cd $PCP_PMDAS_DIR/postgresql
    # ./Install

To uninstall, the following must be done as root:

    # cd $PCP_PMDAS_DIR/postgresql
    # ./Remove

pmdapostgresql is launched by pmcd(1) and should never be executed directly. The Install and Remove scripts notify pmcd(1) when the agent is installed or removed.

pmdapostgresql will automatically attempt to reconnect to the PostgreSQL server if its connection is lost - e.g. if the PostgreSQL service is restarted.

SUPPORTED VERSIONS
This version of pmdapostgresql has been tested and verified with PostgreSQL server version 10.2 and earlier. Later versions will probably also work correctly because the PMDA probes the various performance tables on start-up to determine the column ordering. It also tolerates missing or renamed tables and/or columns.

FILES

$PCP_PMDAS_DIR/postgresql/pmdapostgresql.conf
    configuration file for the pmdapostgresql agent

$PCP_PMDAS_DIR/postgresql/Install
    installation script for the pmdapostgresql agent

$PCP_PMDAS_DIR/postgresql/Remove
    undo installation script for the pmdapostgresql agent

$PCP_LOG_DIR/pmcd/postgresql.log
    default log file for messages from the pmdapostgresql agent

Note that the usual/default value for $PCP_PMDAS_DIR is /var/lib/pcp/pmdas and the default for $PCP_LOG_DIR is /var/log/pcp but these settings are platform dependent.

PCP ENVIRONMENT
Environment variables with the prefix PCP_ are used to parameterize the file and directory names used by PCP. On each installation, the file /etc/pcp.conf contains the local values for these variables. The $PCP_CONF variable may be used to specify an alternative configuration file, as described in pcp.conf(5).

SEE ALSO
PCPIntro(1), pmcd(1) and https://postgresql.org/docs/current/static/monitoring-stats.html.