AI in the DBeaver Query Editor

PostgreSQL
You know I had to do it as soon as I found it was possible. Yes, I installed and enabled AI in the DBeaver Query Editor so I can use AI with my PostgreSQL database work. Let's face it. It was inevitable. However, the setup isn't intuitive. Setting Up in DBeaver I'm going to assume you're on the Community Edition of DBeaver. First, got to the "Help" menu and then "New Software". A window will open up. Right at the top is a drop down labeled "Work with." Select that and then select "DBeaver - AI support - https://dbeaver.io/update/ai/latest/." Next, select "DBeaver AI Support" down in the window and it should look like this: At the bottom of the screen you can pick finish, or hit next and review stuff.…
Read More

Free PostgreSQL Performance Monitoring with pgNow

PostgreSQL
I've been putting together a new PostgreSQL session called "Performance Monitoring for the Absolute Beginner." There are several ways to get an understanding of how well your queries are running in PostgreSQL, but, frankly, all of them are a bit of a pain to someone coming from the land of Extended Events (ah, my one true love). Because of this, I saw it as an opportunity to help those just getting going in PostgreSQL. I'll be presenting it for the first time at Postgres Conference in Orlando on March 19, 2025. Come on by. Anyhoo, wouldn't it be nice to maybe have a shortcut, an easier way to look at this information? Well, there is. Redgate has been working on a completely free tool for leveraging just this sort of…
Read More

RDS Connectivity

AWS, PostgreSQL, RDS
I travel quite a lot for work. Most of it is in the US and Europe, but I get around to other places as well. Most of the time, connectivity, while not the greatest, isn't that bad, or hard. I run a VPN on my phone and laptop. I can set up my RDS connectivity by getting whatever IP address I've been assigned, and I'm good to go. However, recently, for whatever reason, I could not make a connection to AWS RDS no matter what I tried. I even switched over to my phone. I dropped my existing database (which hurt, just a test database, but now I have to rebuild it). Nothing. I validated every single possible problem. I went through all the troubleshooting steps. Nothing. It's Nice to…
Read More

AWS RDS PostgreSQL Restore to a Point in Time

AWS, PostgreSQL, RDS
One of the single biggest reasons to go with a Platform as a Service (PaaS) offering like AWS RDS are the things it does for you, like making it really easy to restore to a point in time. Let's take a look at it. Restore to a Point in Time When connect up to the console and look at your databases, all you have to do is select the "Maintenance and Backups" tab to get details on what backups are being taken: That's the basics of what's happening with your backups. However, you can get more detail by choosing the "Automated Backups" page on the left: And now you see all the information about the backups. But the real magic to restore to a point in time is over on…
Read More

PostgreSQL and Instrumentation

PostgreSQL
I'm still learning PostgreSQL and one of the things I've been looking at a lot lately is instrumentation. What do I mean? Well, if you're in SQL Server, think, Dynamic Management Views (DMV), Extended Events, Query Store, <hack, spit> Trace <spit>. How do we know how long a query took to run? PostgreSQL can tell you, but, and this is one of those wild, cool, but, honestly, slightly frustrating things about PostgreSQL, not natively. Let's talk about it. Instrumentation If you connect up to a PostgreSQL database, you actually do have the equivalent of DMVs. It's called the Cumulative Statistics System. And yeah, it's a bunch of views on a bunch of functions. It displays all sorts of data about IO, tables, indexes, etc.. It will even show you acive…
Read More

Data Technology Learning Resources

AWS, Azure, Database Fundamentals, PostgreSQL, SQL Server
Hey all! Quick one here. Tracy Boggiano, awesome person that she is, has put together an interesting collection of data over on GitHub. It's titled DBA Resources, but it goes beyond DBAs. It's much more about the different data platforms on display. And, it's in Github. Create a pull request and you can add to it. Get your own blog on there, whatever. Anyhoo, worth a look. I'm going to do some contributions. Oh, AND, it's multi-platform, cause, isn't everything these days.
Read More

PostgreSQL Events – A Newbies Perspective: #PGSQLPhriday 014

PostgreSQL
For this month's #PGSQLPhriday 014 blogging event, Pavlo Golub has asked a pretty simple question: What do you think about PostgreSQL events? Prior to this year, I'd never attended an event focused on PostgreSQL. Heck, I'd never attended an event that had an intentional track or learning pathway, or whatever, focused on PostgreSQL. In the past year though, I've now attended four. As a complete newbie, let me tell you a little bit about the PostgreSQL community as I see it. Welcoming The very first word that comes to mind when I think about the PostgreSQL community is that it is welcoming. Like the SQL Server community that I've been practically living with for the last almost 20 years, the people who make up the PostgreSQL community are very kind,…
Read More

PGSQL Phriday #009: On Rollback

PostgreSQL
The invitation this month for #PGSqlPhriday comes from Dian Fay. The topic is pretty simple, database change management. Now, I may have, once or twice, spoken about database change management, database DevOps, automating deployments, and all that sort of thing. Maybe. Once or twice. OK. This is my topic. I've got some great examples on taking changes from the schema on your PostgreSQL databases and then deploying them. All the technical stuff you could want. However, I don't want to talk about that today. Instead, I want to talk about something really important, the concept of rollbacks when it comes to database deployments. Why Are Rollbacks Difficult? The entire purpose of your PostgreSQL database is to persist, that is to store, the data. Then, of course, offer up a way…
Read More

Why Put PostgreSQL in Azure

PostgreSQL
I've had people come up to me and say "PostgreSQL is open source and therefore license free. Why on earth would I put PostgreSQL in Azure?" Honestly, I think that's a very fair question. The shortest possible answer is, of course, you don't have to. You can host your own PostgreSQL instances on local hardware, or build out VMs in Azure and put PostgreSQL out there, some other VM host, or maybe in Kubernetes containers, I mean, yeah, you have tons of options. So why PostgreSQL in Azure, and specifically, I mean the Platform as a Service offering? Let's talk about it. PostgreSQL in Azure Let's assume for a moment that you're PostgreSQL expert (I'm not, but I do play one on TV). You know exactly how to set up…
Read More

#PGSQLPhriday 006: Wrap Up & Summary

PostgreSQL
Your mission, if you chose to accept it, was to share a single tip/hint/fact/something that you wish you'd known about PostgreSQL when you were just getting started learning it. Well, we've got several people who have put together some excellent posts. Let's go over 'em all, in no particular order. First up, Lætitia Avrot has a post all about the PostgreSQL documentation and it is well worth the read. I couldn't agree more with all her points. Plus, I love, love, LOVE the summary list of pointers to documentation broken down by role. Thanks so much for sharing all this. I also wrote a post about the docs. Lætitia covers them better. Next, Andreas Scherbaum has some very cool tips for using psql. My knowledge here is a bit slim.…
Read More