Mastering PostgreSQL 12

Mastering PostgreSQL 12

by Hans-Jurgen Schonig
Released November 2019
Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
ISBN: 9781838988821

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Book description

Master PostgreSQL 12 features such as advanced indexing, high availability, monitoring, and much more to efficiently manage and maintain your database

Key Features

  • Grasp advanced PostgreSQL 12 concepts with real-world examples and sample datasets
  • Explore query parallelism, data replication, database administration, and more
  • Extend PostgreSQL functionalities to suit your organization's needs with minimal effort

Book Description

Thanks to its reliability, robustness, and high performance, PostgreSQL has become the most advanced open source database on the market. This third edition of Mastering PostgreSQL helps you build dynamic database solutions for enterprise applications using the latest release of PostgreSQL, which enables database analysts to design both physical and technical aspects of system architecture with ease.

Starting with an introduction to the newly released features in PostgreSQL 12, this book will help you build efficient and fault-tolerant PostgreSQL applications. You'll thoroughly examine the advanced features of PostgreSQL, including logical replication, database clusters, performance tuning, monitoring, and user management. You'll also work with the PostgreSQL optimizer, configure PostgreSQL for high speed, and understand how to move from Oracle to PostgreSQL. As you progress through the chapters, you'll cover transactions, locking, indexes, and how to optimize queries for improved performance. Additionally, you'll learn how to manage network security and explore backups and replications while understanding useful PostgreSQL extensions to help you in optimizing the performance of large databases.

By the end of this PostgreSQL book, you'll be able to get the most out of your database by implementing advanced administrative tasks effortlessly.

What you will learn

  • Understand the advanced SQL functions in PostgreSQL 12
  • Use indexing features in PostgreSQL to fine-tune the performance of queries
  • Work with stored procedures and manage backup and recovery
  • Master replication and failover techniques to reduce data loss
  • Replicate PostgreSQL database systems to create backups and to scale your database
  • Manage and improve the security of your server to protect your data
  • Troubleshoot your PostgreSQL instance for solutions to common and not-so-common problems

Who this book is for

This book is for PostgreSQL developers and administrators and database professionals who want to implement advanced functionalities and master complex administrative tasks with PostgreSQL 12. Prior exposure to PostgreSQL as well as familiarity with the basics of database administration is expected.

Table of contents

  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright and Credits
    1. Mastering PostgreSQL 12 Third Edition
  3. About Packt
    1. Why subscribe?
  4. Contributors
    1. About the author
    2. About the reviewers
    3. Packt is searching for authors like you
  5. Preface
    1. Who this book is for
    2. What this book covers
    3. To get the most out of this book
      1. Conventions used
    4. Get in touch
      1. Reviews
  6. Section 1: Basic Overview
  7. PostgreSQL 12 Overview
    1. What's new in PostgreSQL 12?
      1. Digging into SQL and developer-related topics
        1. Improving psql and database documentation
        2. Displaying output as CSV
        3. Rebuilding indexes concurrently
        4. Storing the result of a computation
        5. Improving ENUM handling
        6. Making use of JSONPATH
      2. Understanding backup and recovery related features
      3. Making use of performance improvements
        1. Optimizing common table expressions and planner support functions
        2. Speeding up partitions
        3. Creating special indexes more efficiently
      4. Understanding new storage-related features
    2. Summary
  8. Understanding Transactions and Locking
    1. Working with PostgreSQL transactions
      1. Handling errors inside a transaction
      2. Making use of SAVEPOINT
      3. Transactional DDLs
    2. Understanding basic locking
      1. Avoiding typical mistakes and explicit locking
        1. Considering alternative solutions
    3. Making use of FOR SHARE and FOR UPDATE
    4. Understanding transaction isolation levels
      1. Considering Serializable Snapshot Isolation transactions
    5. Observing deadlocks and similar issues
    6. Utilizing advisory locks
    7. Optimizing storage and managing cleanup
      1. Configuring VACUUM and autovacuum
        1. Digging into transaction wraparound-related issues
        2. A word on VACUUM FULL
      2. Watching VACUUM at work
      3. Limiting transactions by making use of snapshot too old
      4. Making use of more VACUUM features
    8. Summary
    9. Questions
  9. Section 2: Advanced Concepts
  10. Making Use of Indexes
    1. Understanding simple queries and the cost model
      1. Making use of EXPLAIN
      2. Digging into the PostgreSQL cost model
      3. Deploying simple indexes
      4. Making use of sorted output
        1. Using more than one index at a time
      5. Using bitmap scans effectively
      6. Using indexes in an intelligent way
    2. Improving speed using clustered tables
      1. Clustering tables
      2. Making use of index-only scans
    3. Understanding additional B-tree features
      1. Combined indexes
      2. Adding functional indexes
      3. Reducing space consumption
      4. Adding data while indexing
    4. Introducing operator classes
      1. Creating an operator class for a B-tree
        1. Creating new operators
        2. Creating operator classes
        3. Testing custom operator classes
    5. Understanding PostgreSQL index types
      1. Hash indexes
      2. GiST indexes
        1. Understanding how GiST works
        2. Extending GiST
      3. GIN indexes
        1. Extending GIN
      4. SP-GiST indexes
      5. BRIN indexes
        1. Extending BRIN indexes
      6. Adding additional indexes
    6. Achieving better answers with fuzzy searching
      1. Taking advantage of pg_trgm
      2. Speeding up LIKE queries
      3. Handling regular expressions
    7. Understanding full-text search
      1. Comparing strings
      2. Defining GIN indexes
      3. Debugging your search
      4. Gathering word statistics
      5. Taking advantage of exclusion operators
    8. Summary
    9. Questions
  11. Handling Advanced SQL
    1. Introducing grouping sets
      1. Loading some sample data
      2. Applying grouping sets
        1. Investigating performance
      3. Combining grouping sets with the FILTER clause
    2. Making use of ordered sets
    3. Understanding hypothetical aggregates
    4. Utilizing windowing functions and analytics
      1. Partitioning data
      2. Ordering data inside a window
      3. Using sliding windows
        1. Understanding the subtle difference between ROWS and RANGE
        2. Removing duplicates using EXCLUDE TIES and EXCLUDE GROUP
      4. Abstracting window clauses
      5. Using on-board windowing functions
        1. The rank and dense_rank functions
        2. The ntile() function
        3. The lead() and lag() functions
        4. The first_value(), nth_value(), and last_value() functions
        5. The row_number() function
    5. Writing your own aggregates
      1. Creating simple aggregates
      2. Adding support for parallel queries
      3. Improving efficiency
      4. Writing hypothetical aggregates
    6. Summary
  12. Log Files and System Statistics
    1. Gathering runtime statistics
      1. Working with PostgreSQL system views
        1. Checking live traffic
        2. Inspecting databases
          1. Inspecting tables
        3. Making sense of pg_stat_user_tables
        4. Digging into indexes
        5. Tracking the background worker
        6. Tracking, archiving, and streaming
        7. Checking SSL connections
        8. Inspecting transactions in real time
        9. Tracking VACUUM and CREATE INDEX progress
        10. Using pg_stat_statements
    2. Creating log files
      1. Configuring the postgresql.conf file
        1. Defining log destination and rotation
        2. Configuring syslog
        3. Logging slow queries
        4. Defining what and how to log
    3. Summary
    4. Questions
  13. Optimizing Queries for Good Performance
    1. Learning what the optimizer does
      1. Optimizations by example
        1. Evaluating join options
          1. Nested loops
          2. Hash joins
          3. Merge joins
        2. Applying transformations
          1. Step 1: Inlining the view
          2. Step 2: Flattening subselects
        3. Applying equality constraints
        4. Exhaustive searching
        5. Trying it all out
        6. Making the process fail
        7. Constant folding
        8. Understanding function inlining
        9. Join pruning
        10. Speedup set operations
    2. Understanding execution plans
      1. Approaching plans systematically
        1. Making EXPLAIN more verbose
      2. Spotting problems
        1. Spotting changes in runtime
        2. Inspecting estimates
        3. Inspecting buffer usage
        4. Fixing high buffer usage
    3. Understanding and fixing joins
      1. Getting joins right
      2. Processing outer joins
      3. Understanding the join_collapse_limit variable
    4. Enabling and disabling optimizer settings
      1. Understanding genetic query optimization
    5. Partitioning data
      1. Creating partitions
      2. Applying table constraints
      3. Modifying inherited structures
      4. Moving tables in and out of partitioned structures
      5. Cleaning up data
      6. Understanding PostgreSQL 12.0 partitioning
    6. Adjusting parameters for good query performance
      1. Speeding up sorting
      2. Speeding up administrative tasks
    7. Making use of parallel queries
      1. What is PostgreSQL able to do in parallel?
      2. Parallelism in practice
    8. Introducing JIT compilation
      1. Configuring JIT
      2. Running queries
    9. Summary
  14. Writing Stored Procedures
    1. Understanding stored procedure languages
      1. Understanding fundamentals – stored procedures versus functions
      2. The anatomy of a function
        1. Introducing dollar quoting
        2. Making use of anonymous code blocks
        3. Using functions and transactions
    2. Understanding various stored procedure languages
      1. Introducing PL/pgSQL
        1. Handling quoting and the string format
        2. Managing scopes
        3. Understanding advanced error handling
        4. Making use of GET DIAGNOSTICS
        5. Using cursors to fetch data in chunks
        6. Utilizing composite types
        7. Writing triggers in PL/pgSQL
      2. Writing stored procedures in PL/pgSQL
      3. Introducing PL/Perl
        1. Using PL/Perl for data type abstraction
        2. Deciding between PL/Perl and PL/PerlU
        3. Making use of the SPI interface
        4. Using SPI for set-returning functions
        5. Escaping in PL/Perl and support functions
        6. Sharing data across function calls
        7. Writing triggers in Perl
      4. Introducing PL/Python
        1. Writing simple PL/Python code
        2. Using the SPI interface
        3. Handling errors
    3. Improving functions
      1. Reducing the number of function calls
        1. Using cached plans
        2. Assigning costs to functions
    4. Using functions for various purposes
    5. Summary
    6. Questions
  15. Managing PostgreSQL Security
    1. Managing network security
      1. Understanding bind addresses and connections
        1. Inspecting connections and performance
        2. Living in a world without TCP
      2. Managing pg_hba.conf
        1. Handling SSL
      3. Handling instance-level security
        1. Creating and modifying users
      4. Defining database-level security
      5. Adjusting schema-level permissions
      6. Working with tables
      7. Handling column-level security
      8. Configuring default privileges
    2. Digging into RLS
    3. Inspecting permissions
    4. Reassigning objects and dropping users
    5. Summary
    6. Questions
  16. Handling Backup and Recovery
    1. Performing simple dumps
      1. Running pg_dump
      2. Passing passwords and connection information
        1. Using environment variables
        2. Making use of .pgpass
        3. Using service files
      3. Extracting subsets of data
    2. Handling various formats
    3. Replaying backups
    4. Handling global data
    5. Summary
    6. Questions
  17. Making Sense of Backups and Replication
    1. Understanding the transaction log
      1. Looking at the transaction log
      2. Understanding checkpoints
      3. Optimizing the transaction log
    2. Transaction log archiving and recovery
      1. Configuring for archiving
      2. Configuring the pg_hba.conf file
      3. Creating base backups
        1. Reducing the bandwidth of a backup
        2. Mapping tablespaces
        3. Using different formats
        4. Testing transaction log archiving
      4. Replaying the transaction log
        1. Finding the right timestamp
      5. Cleaning up the transaction log archive
    3. Setting up asynchronous replication
      1. Performing a basic setup
        1. Improving security
      2. Halting and resuming replication
      3. Checking replication to ensure availability
      4. Performing failovers and understanding timelines
      5. Managing conflicts
      6. Making replication more reliable
    4. Upgrading to synchronous replication
      1. Adjusting durability
    5. Making use of replication slots
      1. Handling physical replication slots
      2. Handling logical replication slots
        1. Use cases of logical slots
    6. Making use of CREATE PUBLICATION and CREATE SUBSCRIPTION
    7. Summary
    8. Questions
  18. Deciding on Useful Extensions
    1. Understanding how extensions work
      1. Checking for available extensions
    2. Making use of contrib modules
      1. Using the adminpack module
      2. Applying bloom filters
      3. Deploying btree_gist and btree_gin
      4. dblink – considering phasing out
      5. Fetching files with file_fdw
      6. Inspecting storage using pageinspect
      7. Investigating caching with pg_buffercache
      8. Encrypting data with pgcrypto
      9. Prewarming caches with pg_prewarm
      10. Inspecting performance with pg_stat_statements
      11. Inspecting storage with pgstattuple
      12. Fuzzy searching with pg_trgm
      13. Connecting to remote servers using postgres_fdw
        1. Handling mistakes and typos
    3. Other useful extensions
    4. Summary
  19. Troubleshooting PostgreSQL
    1. Approaching an unknown database
    2. Inspecting pg_stat_activity
      1. Querying pg_stat_activity
        1. Treating Hibernate statements
        2. Figuring out where queries come from
    3. Checking for slow queries
      1. Inspecting individual queries
      2. Digging deeper with perf
    4. Inspecting the log
    5. Checking for missing indexes
    6. Checking for memory and I/O
    7. Understanding noteworthy error scenarios
      1. Facing clog corruption
      2. Understanding checkpoint messages
      3. Managing corrupted data pages
      4. Careless connection management
      5. Fighting table bloat
    8. Summary
    9. Questions
  20. Migrating to PostgreSQL
    1. Migrating SQL statements to PostgreSQL
      1. Using lateral joins
        1. Supporting lateral joins
      2. Using grouping sets
        1. Supporting grouping sets
      3. Using the WITH clause – common table expressions
        1. Supporting the WITH clause
      4. Using the WITH RECURSIVE clause
        1. Supporting the WITH RECURSIVE clause
      5. Using the FILTER clause
        1. Supporting the FILTER clause
      6. Using windowing functions
        1. Supporting windowing and analytics
      7. Using ordered sets – the WITHIN GROUP clause
        1. Supporting the WITHIN GROUP clause
      8. Using the TABLESAMPLE clause
        1. Supporting the TABLESAMPLE clause
      9. Using limit/offset
        1. Supporting the FETCH FIRST clause
      10. Using the OFFSET clause
        1. Supporting the OFFSET clause
      11. Using temporal tables
        1. Supporting temporal tables
      12. Matching patterns in time series
    2. Moving from Oracle to PostgreSQL
      1. Using the oracle_fdw extension to move data
      2. Using ora_migrator for fast migration
      3. Using Ora2pg to migrate from Oracle
      4. Common pitfalls
      5. Handling data in MySQL and MariaDB
        1. Changing column definitions
        2. Handling null values
        3. Expecting problems
      6. Migrating data and schema
        1. Using pg_chameleon
        2. Using FDWs
    3. Summary
  21. Assessment
    1. Chapter 2
    2. Chapter 3
    3. Chapter 5
    4. Chapter 7
    5. Chapter 8
    6. Chapter 9
    7. Chapter 10
    8. Chapter 12
  22. Other Books You May Enjoy
    1. Leave a review - let other readers know what you think

Product information

  • Title: Mastering PostgreSQL 12
  • Author(s): Hans-Jurgen Schonig
  • Release date: November 2019
  • Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
  • ISBN: 9781838988821