PostgreSQL Uptime Test

In most production environments, it is essential to monitor the uptime of critical Postgres database servers in the infrastructure. By tracking the uptime of each of the Postgres database servers, administrators can determine what percentage of time a server has been up. Comparing this value with service level targets, administrators can determine the most trouble-prone areas of the infrastructure. In some environments, administrators may schedule periodic reboots of their Postgres database servers. By knowing that a specific server has been up for an unusually long time, an administrator may come to know that the scheduled reboot task is not working on a server. This test included in the eG agent monitors the uptime of critical PostGres database servers.

Target of the test : PostgreSQL server

Agent deploying the test: An internal/remote agent

Outputs of the test :One set of results for every database on the target PostgreSQL server

Configurable parameters for the test
Parameter	Description
Test period	How often should the test be executed
Host	The IP address of the host for which this test is to be configured.
Port	The port on which the server is listening. The default port is 5432.
Password Profile	This list box appears only if one or more password profiles are created for the target host. Typically, to protect the critical servers/services from malicious attacks by online predators, administrators of secured IT environments frequently change the access credentials for the critical servers and services. Once a password is changed, all tests that take that password as a parameter will stop working, until such time the administrator manually reconfigures each test and changes the password. To avoid such anomalies and save administrators the time and effort involved in manually changing the password of tests, eG Enterprise allows the creation of one/more password profiles. With the password profiles, administrators no longer need to manually configure the credentials; instead, they only need to select the Password Profile that contains the credentials to be passed to the test. This means that if a password changes/expires subsequently, it would suffice to change the corresponding Password Profile alone. All the tests configured with that Password Profile will automatically assume the new password. Once, you select a password profile from the Password Profile list box, the user credentials will be automatically populated in the corresponding text boxes that follow the Password profile list box. If you do not want to use the password profiles, then, you can ignore selecting the password profile from the list box and manually configure the user credentials.
Username	In order to monitor a PostgreSQL server, you need to manually create a special database user account in every PostgreSQL database instance that requires monitoring. To know how to create such a user based on where the target PostgreSQL server is installed (whether on-premises or hosted on Cloud), refer to How does eG Enterprise Monitor PostgreSQL Server?.
Password	The password associated with the above Username (can be ‘NULL’). Here, ‘NULL’ means that the user does not have any password.
Confirm Password	Confirm the Password (if any) by retyping it here.
DB Name	The name of the database to connect to. The default is “postgres”.
SSL	This indicates that the eG agent will communicate with the PostGreSQL Database via HTTPS or not. By default, this flag is set to No, as the target PostGreSQL database is not SSL-enabled by default. If the target database is SSL-enabled, then set this flag to Yes.
Verify CA	If the eG agent is required to establish an encrypted connection with the target PostGreSQL Database server by authenticating the server's identity through verifying the server CA certificate, set Verify CA flag to Yes. By default, this flag is set to No.
CA Cert File	This parameter is applicable only if the target PostGreSQL Database is SSL-enabled.The certificate file is a public-key certificate following the x.509 standard. It contains information about the identity of the server, such as its name, geolocation, and public key. Each nodes of the target cluster can have individual certificate files or a single certificate can be used to access all the nodes in the cluster. Essentially, it’s a certificate that the server serves to the connecting users to prove that they are what they claim to be. Therefore, specify the full path to the server root certificate or certificate file that is signed by the CA in .crt file format for all/each node in the CA Cert File text box. For example, the location of this file may be: C:\app\eGurkha\JRE\lib\security\PostGreQL-test-ca.crt. By default, this parameter is set to none. This parameter specification differs according to the type of cluster and configuration: If the certificate file is available for each node of the PostGreSQL Cluster then, provide a comma-seperated list of full path to the certificates in CA Cert File text box: For example:C:\app\eGurkha\JRE\lib\security\postgresql-test-ca.crt,C:\app\eGurkha\JRE\lib\security\postgresql-test-ca2.crt,C:\app\eGurkha\JRE\lib\security\postgresql-test-ca3.crt Specify the full path to the certificate file of the target PostGreSQL Database if a single certificate is used to access all nodes. For example: C:\app\eGurkha\JRE\lib\security\postgresql-test-ca.crt
Client Cert File	This parameter is applicable only if the target PostGreSQL Database is SSL-enabled. In order to collect metrics from the target MongoDB cluster, the eG agent requires client certificate in .p12 format. Hence, specify the full path to the Client certificate file in .p12 format in the Client Cert File text box. For example, the location of this file may be: C:\app\eGurkha\JRE\lib\security\test-client.p12.
Client Key File	A client key file refers to a file containing the private key that corresponds to the public key used by a client. Provide full path of the file containing client key.
DD Frequency	Refers to the frequency with which detailed diagnosis measures are to be generated for this test. The default is 1:1. This indicates that, by default, detailed measures will be generated every time this test runs, and also every time the test detects a problem. You can modify this frequency, if you so desire. Also, if you intend to disable the detailed diagnosis capability for this test, you can do so by specifying none against DD frequency.
Detailed Diagnosis	To make diagnosis more efficient and accurate, the eG Enterprise embeds an optional detailed diagnostic capability. With this capability, the eG agents can be configured to run detailed, more elaborate tests as and when specific problems are detected. To enable the detailed diagnosis capability of this test for a particular server, choose the On option. To disable the capability, click on the Off option. The option to selectively enable/disable the detailed diagnosis capability will be available only if the following conditions are fulfilled: The eG manager license should allow the detailed diagnosis capability Both the normal and abnormal frequencies configured for the detailed diagnosis measures should not be 0.

Measurements made by the test

Measurement

Description

Measurement Unit

Interpretation

Has server been restarted?

Indicates whether the Postgres server has been rebooted during the last measurement period or not.

If the value of this measure is No, it indicates that the Postgres database server has not restarted. The value Yes on the other hand implies that the Postgres database server has indeed restarted.

The values reported by this measure and its numeric equivalents are mentioned in the table below:

Measure Value	Numeric Value
Yes	1
No	0

Note:

By default, this measure reports the value Yes or No to indicate whether a Postgres database server has restarted. The graph of this measure however, represents the same using the numeric equivalents – 0 or 1.

Use the detailed diagnosis to find out the Shutdown date, Restart date, Shutdown duration(Minutes) and whether the server ia under maintenance.

Uptime since last measure

Indicates the time period that the Postgres database server has been up since the last time this test ran.

Seconds

If the Postgres server has not been restarted during the last measurement period and the agent has been running continuously, this value will be equal to the measurement period. If the Postgres server was restarted during the last measurement period, this value will be less than the measurement period of the test. For example, if the measurement period is 300 secs, and if the Postgres server was restarted 120 secs back, this metric will report a value of 120 seconds. The accuracy of this metric is dependent on the measurement period – the smaller the measurement period, greater the accuracy.

Uptime

Indicates the total time that the Postgres server has been up since its last reboot.

Seconds

Administrators may wish to be alerted if a Postgres server has been running without a reboot for a very long period. Setting a threshold for this metric allows administrators to determine such conditions.

Is under maintenance?

Indicates whether the server is under maintenance or not.

The values reported by this measure and its numeric equivalents are mentioned in the table below:

Measure Value	Numeric Value
Yes	1
No	0

Note:

This measure reports the Measure Values listed in the table above to indicate whether the target server is under maintenance. However, in the graph, this measure is indicated using the Numeric Values listed in the table above.