The Accidental DBA

a guide for
the perplexed

Do
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ani
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Josh Berkus
PostgreSQL Experts, Inc.
LinuxCon NA 2012
 “Jonathan quit.
You're in charge of
the Postgres servers
now.”
 covered in this talk
● PostgreSQL ● MySQL
● installation ● (covered
● configuration yesterday)
● connections ● no time for
● backup ● replication
● monitoring ● indexes
● slow queries ● schema design
● migrations
9.2rc1 Out Now!
“DevOps”

“Cloud”
 Y U no DBA?

1.limited budgets
2.shortage of operational staff
3.cheaper OSS databases

… you are the DBA now.

 Oh My God,
We’re All Going To Die.
Do
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 Do
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Installation
 Use Packages!
● version not important?
● use the ones that come with your
distro
● Red Hat, Centos, SciLinux
● Debian, Ubuntu
● SuSE
 Use Packages!
● need the latest version?
● alternate packages
● Red Hat: yum.postgresql.org
● Ubuntu: Martin Pitt's backports
● SuSE: build service
● Debian: backports coming soon
create data directory?
● $PGDATA is where the database files
live
● most packages create it
● if not, use “initdb” to create it
● pick a suitable location!
 Do
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configuration
 use good hardware
● databases use all the hardware
● RAM, CPU, IO
● disk can be very important
– DB larger than RAM
– write-heavy database

● the database cannot outperform bad

hardware
put the database
on its own server
(or virtual server)
 cloud servers
● cloud server performance sucks
● especially IO
● make sure you have enough RAM to
cache the whole database
 Linux configuration
1.turn the OOM killer off
2.set zone_reclaim_mode = 0
3.use XFS or Ext4 for database files
4.increase shmmax, shmall
● so that you can raise shared_buffers
● this is going away with 9.3!
 postgresql.conf
shared_buffers = ¼ of RAM up to 8GB
work_mem =
( RAM * 2 )/ max_connections
maintenance_work_mem = 1/16 RAM
effective_cache_size = 75% of RAM
checkpoint_segments =
32 (small DB)
to 128 (large DB, many writes)
 Do
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connections
&
security
 network
● local connections: UDP, if possible
● faster than TCP/IP
● other servers: port 5432
● make sure it's open on the firewall!
● on the cloud? use SSL
● secure your connections
● PITA to set up, though
 max_connections
“ERROR: connection limit
exceeded for non-superusers”
● postgresql.conf
● increase number of connections
● good up to about 50 + 10 x cores
● keep needing to increase it?
something wrong with the app
 connection pooling
● Java? use J2EE pooling
● Everyone else: pgbouncer
● event-based pooler
● separate package
● on DB server, or
● app server, or
rd
●
3 “bouncer” server
 host-based access
“FATAL: no pg_hba.conf entry for host
"192.168.0.1", user "chaos", database
"chaosLRdb", SSL off”
● pg_hba.conf
● access control list:
● database/user/host address
● like iptables for Postgres
● change config and reload
 security
“FATAL: password authentication
failed for user "wwwuser"”
● Postgres users & passwords
● CREATE/ALTER USER
● “group” ROLEs
● DB object permissions
● Or: use LDAP or PAM
 the psql
command line
 Do
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slow queries
 pg_stat_activity
-[ RECORD 2 ]----+--------------------------------
datid | 16422
datname | libdata
procpid | 46295
usesysid | 10
usename | dataentry
application_name | psql
client_addr | 192.168.101.114
client_port | 5432
backend_start | 2012-08-26 15:09:05.233-07
xact_start | 2012-08-26 15:09:06.113-07
query_start | 2012-08-26 15:11:53.521-07
waiting | f
current_query | <IDLE> in transaction
 locks
● write queries can block on other write
queries
● as can table schema changes
● queries can wait forever on locks
● look for “<IDLE> in transaction”
● that's a ...
Zombie Transactions

Want RAAAAAAAM
 killing zombies
● pg_cancel_backend(pid)
● kills running queries with sigINT
● like CTRL-C
● pg_terminate_backend(pid)
● kills bad connections, idle
transactions
● can cause DB to restart
 EXPLAIN
Nested Loop (cost=792.00..828.08 rows=1422317 width=99)
-> HashAggregate (cost=792.00..792.00 rows=1 width=4)
-> Index Scan using
index_player_summaries_on_player_id on player_summaries
ps (cost=0.00..791.80 rows=403 width=4)
Index Cond: (player_id = 21432312)
-> Index Scan using index_player_summaries_on_match_id
on player_summaries (cost=0.00..33.98 rows=600 width=99)
Index Cond: (match_id = ps.match_id)
 EXPLAIN ANALYZE
Nested Loop (cost=792.00..828.08 rows=1422317
width=99) (actual time=9928.869..20753.723
rows=13470 loops=1)
-> HashAggregate (cost=792.00..792.00 rows=1 width=4)
(actual time=9895.105..9897.096 rows=1347 loops=1)
-> Index Scan using
index_player_summaries_on_player_id on player_summaries
ps (cost=0.00..791.80 rows=403 width=4) (actual
time=27.413..9890.887 rows=1347 loops=1)
Index Cond: (player_id = 21432312)
-> Index Scan using index_player_summaries_on_match_id
on player_summaries (cost=0.00..33.98 rows=600 width=99)
(actual time=7.375..8.037 rows=10 loops=1347)
Index Cond: (match_id = ps.match_id)
Total runtime: 20764.371 ms"
explain.depesz.com
 what to look for
● “seq scan” on large table
● maybe index needed
● cartesian joins
● really bad row estimates
● ANALYZE needed?
 Do
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backups
2012-01-27 18:00:44 MSK FATAL:
invalid page header in block
311757 of relation
base/26976/27977
2012-01-27 18:00:44 MSK CONTEXT:
xlog redo insert:
rel 1663/26976/27977;
tid 311757/44
2012-01-27 18:00:44 MSK LOG:
startup process (PID 392)
exited with exit code 1
2012-01-27 18:00:44 MSK LOG:
aborting startup due
to startup process failure
 pg_dump
● “logical” backup
● portable
● compressed
● works for upgrades
● good for small databases
● use -Fc
● custom binary format
 PITR
● “Point-In-Time Recovery”
● “binary” and “continuous” backup
● take snapshot of DB files
● accumulate logfile copies
● good for large databases
● can combine with replication
 PITR - PITA
● can be difficult to set up & monitor
● use tools:
● RepMgr
● OmniPITR
● WAL-E (for AWS)
 Do
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monitoring
 use your favorite tool
ganglia, collectd, Hyperic, OpenNMS,
OpenView, whatever ....
● nagios check_postgres.pl

● broad list of checks

● mine it for queries and techniques
 many useful checks
● disk space ● long queries
● caching RAM ● database size
● response time ● table bloat
● connections ● system load
● idle transacts ● replication lag
● table growth ● XID wraparound
● waiting queries ● execution time
 activity log
● connections & disconnections
● slow queries
● DB swap usage
● schema changes
● lock waits & deadlocks
pgfouine, pgbadger
 Do
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schema migrations
 SQL-DDL is code
1.write migration scripts
● make them idempotent
● write “undo” scripts
2.check them into version control
3.test them on a staging server
● check how long they take
4.deploy on production
 Postgres doesn't
require downtime for
most schema
changes.
 Do
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updates c

&
upgrades
 major vs. minor
9.2 == a major version
● requires an upgrade from 9.1.4
● contains features not in 9.1
● requires testing and planned downtime
9.1.5 == a minor version
● is a minor “update” from 9.1.4.
● can (and should) be applied immediately
 minor updates
● come out ~ every 2 months
● contain only bugfixes
● security hole patches
● data loss prevention
● fix server crashes
● no new or changed features
● occasional documented breakage
update procedure
1.schedule 5 minute downtime
2.download packages
3.shut down postgresql
4.install packages
5.restart postgresql
6.restart application
 major upgrades
● come out once per year
● have many new features
● and sometimes break stuff which used to
work
● require extensive testing with your
application
● require significant downtime to
upgrade
 upgrade procedures
● dump & reload
● use pg_dump & pg_restore on database
● most reliable way
● “cleans up” database in process
● best with small databases
● can take a long, long time
 upgrade procedures
● pgUpgrade
● upgrade “in place”
● much faster
● does not “clean up” database
● sometimes doesn't work
EOL after
5 years
 Getting Help
● docs
● postgresql.org/docs/
● postgresguide.org
● wiki.postgresql.org
● books
● PostgreSQL Up and Running (O'Reilly)
● PostgreSQL 9.0 High Performance (Packt)
 Getting Help
● mailing lists
● postgresql.org/community/lists
– pgsql-novice, pgsql-general
● chat
● irc.freenode.net, #postgresql
● web
● dba.stackexchange.com
● planet.postgresql.org
 questions?
● Josh Berkus
● josh@pgexperts.com
● PGX: www.pgexperts.com
● Blog: www.databasesoup.com
● Upcoming Events
● Postgres Open: Chicago, Sept 17-19
● LISA: San Diego, Dec 5-8
Copyright 2012 PostgreSQL Experts Inc. Released under the Creative Commons
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