PgConf.Russia 2017

Modern state of backup tools for PostgreSQL certainly leaves some room for improvements. Standard utilities provides only basic functionality, third-party tools solve some, but not all, problems. To take backups reliably, fast, and incrementally on page level, one needs not only a backup tool, but also some support from the database server. On this tutorial we will talk about our new backup and recovery manager ProBackup, and will show it in action.

Demonstration script:

• pg_probackup_script.txt

< Query failed: ERROR: deadlock detected
< DETAIL: Process 17371 waits for ShareLock on transaction 102733872; Blocked by process.
< Process 10414 waits for ShareLock on transaction 102733874; Blocked by process 17371.

Such "unpleasant" messages from the server can seriously puzzle the developer. When working with locks, in particular, with transactions in general, it is necessary to take into account the features of the implementation of client libraries, which can cause the above exception.

In the short talk, the mechanics of the interaction of locks will be explained, main attention being paid to causes of deadlocks. References to the relevant documentation pages will be given. A technique of "bypassing" this problem of concurrent data access will be described and illustrated with some generalized examples from practice are shown. The talk will be interesting to database developers and administrators as well as the client-side application developers.

It often happens that you already have PosgtreSQL in production, but you don’t have a DBA. To demystify the PostgreSQL database, I’ll tell you how to troubleshoot various problems while working with PosgtreSQL. We will try to understand how to answer "routine" questions of a typical system administrator: - Is everything OK with the database? - What consumes DB server resources? - What to optimize first to reduce resource consumption?

VIDEO

This talk is intended for Oracle DBAs whose are considering to start using PostgreSQL as another RDBMS engine in their DB portfolio or for PostgreSQL DBAs, who wants to learn some of similarities and differences between Oracle and PostgreSQL. This talk is not intended to be a migration guideline neither advocating one platform over another. General database structure overview for both platforms will be compared in terms of memory configuration parameters; logical to physical structure as well as we’ll touch some security point of view and backup & recovery tools available. Oracle container databases are not covered. The talk want’s to help create a bridge for DBA and avoid some frustrations at the first Oracle DBA step to discover, learn and start using PostgreSQL as reliable fully functional database.

VIDEO