PostgreSQL Reference Manual - Volume 3 - Server Administration Guide by The PostgreSQL Global Development Group Paperback (6"x9"), 204 pages ISBN 0954612043 RRP £13.95 ($24.95) Sales of this book support the PostgreSQL project! Get a printed copy>>>

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12 Monitoring Database Activity

A database administrator frequently wonders, “What is the system doing right now?” This chapter discusses how to find that out.

Several tools are available for monitoring database activity and analyzing performance. Most of this chapter is devoted to describing PostgreSQL's statistics collector, but one should not neglect regular Unix monitoring programs such as ps, top, iostat, and vmstat. Also, once one has identified a poorly-performing query, further investigation may be needed using PostgreSQL's EXPLAIN command. Volume 1: Using EXPLAIN discusses EXPLAIN and other methods for understanding the behavior of an individual query.