The reason for writing the article was the release of the new
DBA3 training course
“Administration of PostgreSQL 10. Backup and Replication” . Thoughts about its appearance and possible content were with us for a long time. But first things first.
Up to this point, we had two administrative courses. The first is the Basic Course (
DBA1 ) we developed in the summer of 2015, it was built on the then relevant version of PostgreSQL 9.4. As planned, it includes a basic set of knowledge needed by any database administrator. From installation and server initialization to backup and recovery. At the same time, we understood that it is impossible to fully accommodate all the topics and in a sufficiently detailed form within the framework of one course. Therefore, everything else needed by the administrator was included in the next course - Advanced Course (
DBA2 ). Here, key DBMS mechanisms such as the Multiversioned System (MVCC), the buffer cache and the prerecord journal (WAL) are discussed in some detail. Considerable attention is paid to setting up different ways to replicate data. Details consider the optimization of query execution. The DBA2 course was released in 2016 and was based on version 9.5. In general, we believe that both courses at the time of release sufficiently covered the entire amount of knowledge on administration.
But life goes on, new versions of PostgreSQL are coming out, the courses need to be updated. At the same time, we noticed that the names of the courses were unsuccessful. The “advanced course” is associated by many as the “real” course that you need to take, and the “Basic course” is something for quite beginners and can be skipped. Although in our concept, they only together give a complete picture of the administration.
Another problem that was sometimes pointed out to us was the significant duration of the DBA2 course - 5 days. Many believe that it is very difficult to allocate so much time in a row for training.
Having such introductory ones, we started upgrading the courses to PostgreSQL 10 version. The Base Course came first under the update, and in October 2017 a new version of
DBA1 “Administration of PostgreSQL 10 was released. Base Course” . If you look at its
content , you can see that related topics are grouped together. We call it
modules . The basic course, as before, gives an introduction to how to install and manage a server, examines the architecture and organization of data in a DBMS. In addition, there is an Access Control module, which is covered only in this course. The course ends with review topics on backup and replication. Just review topics. They should be considered in detail elsewhere.
And this place is the new
DBA3 course
“PostgreSQL 10 Administration. Backup and Replication” . It is here that issues of logical and physical backup and recovery, the organization of an archive of journal files are analyzed in detail. Hence the direct road to replication, again both physical and logical. And we decided to complete the course with the topic of a review of options for building cluster solutions for PostgreSQL. This theme is hot, popular and very complex. And there is no single “right” solution, but there is an opportunity to discuss at least questions
why clusters are needed and what are the
approaches to their organization. For assistance in preparing this topic, the authors express their gratitude to Mikhail Kulagin and Stas Kelvich.
In the near future plans to update the course DBA2. For obvious reasons, it will leave the replication module. And the name of the course will change. After all, the main emphasis in it will be placed on the questions of setting up various mechanisms and optimizing the execution of queries. Therefore, the planned name of the
DBA2 course
is “Administration of PostgreSQL 10. Tuning and Optimization” , and its appearance is expected in the fall.
Together, all three DBA courses will provide full coverage of the knowledge needed by PostgreSQL 10 administrators. And the division into modules will even allow you to assemble an arbitrary training program consisting only of the necessary “cubes”.
In the meantime, meet the
DBA3 course
“PostgreSQL 10 Administration. Backup and Replication .
” For independent passage of course materials posted on our website, the video will be later. And soon, authorized training centers will begin to accept orders for training.
As before, we are waiting for your comments and suggestions at
edu@postgrespro.ru .