PostgreSQL Workload Test

Nothing can degrade the performance of a PostgreSQL database server like a resource-hungry or a long-running query! When such queries execute on the server, they either hog almost all the available CPU, memory, and disk resources or keep the resources locked for long time periods, thus leaving little to no resources for carrying out other critical database operations. This can significantly slowdown the database server and adversely impact user experience with the server. To ensure peak performance of the PostgreSQL database server at all times, such queries should be rapidly identified and quickly optimized to minimize resource usage. This is where the PostgreSQL Workload Test helps.

At configured intervals, this test compares the usage levels and execution times of all queries that started running on the server in the last measurement period and identifies a ‘top query’ in each of the following categories - CPU usage, memory usage, disk activity, and execution time. The test then reports the resource usage and execution time of the top queries and promptly alerts administrators if any query consumes more resources or takes more time to execute than it should. In such a scenario, administrators can use the detailed diagnosis of this test to view the inefficient queries and proceed to optimize them to enhance server performance.

Note:

For this test to run and collect metrics on the query execution statistics of the target server, a few pre-requsites provided in the How does eG Enterprise Monitor PostgreSQL Server? should be fulfilled.

Target of the test : PostgreSQL server

Agent deploying the test: An internal/remote agent

Outputs of the test :One set of results for the target PostgreSQL server being monitored.

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	If the PostgreSQL server being monitored is an SSL-enabled server, then set the SSL flag to Yes. If not, then set the SSL flag to No.
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.
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
Maximum physical reads by queries	Indicates the number of physical disk reads performed by the queries per execution.	Reads/execution	If the value of this measure is abnormally high, you can use the detailed diagnosis of this measure to view User ID, Query ID, Physical reads per execution, Physical writes per execution, Calls, Shared block hits, Shared block dirtied, Memory usage(in MB). Memory usage per execution(in MB), Read latency, Write latency, Block read time, Block write time, Elapsed time per execution(in seconds), SQL text.
Maximum physical writes by queries	Indicates the number of physical writes performed by the top query per execution.	Writes/execution	The detailed diagnosis of this measure lists User ID, Query ID, Physical reads per execution, Physical writes per execution, Calls, Shared block hits, Shared block dirtied, Memory usage(in MB). Memory usage per execution(in MB), Read latency, Write latency, Block read time, Block write time, Elapsed time per execution(in seconds), SQL text.
Maximum elapsed time by queries	Indicates the running time of each execution of the top query.	Seconds	If the value of this measure is high, you can use the detailed diagnosis of this measure to view the top-5 (by default) queries that are taking too long to execute. From this, you can easily pick that query with the maximum execution time. You may then want to optimize the query to minimize execution time. The detailed diagnosis of this measure lists User ID, Query ID, Physical reads per execution, Physical writes per execution, Calls, Shared block hits, Shared block dirtied, Memory usage(in MB). Memory usage per execution(in MB), Read latency, Write latency, Block read time, Block write time, Elapsed time per execution(in seconds), SQL text.
Maximum memory usage by queries	Indicates the amount of memory used by the top queries for execution.	MB	The detailed diagnosis of this measure lists User ID, Query ID, Physical reads per execution, Physical writes per execution, Calls, Shared block hits, Shared block dirtied, Memory usage(in MB). Memory usage per execution(in MB), Read latency, Write latency, Block read time, Block write time, Elapsed time per execution(in seconds), SQL text.
Maximum read latency by queries	Indicates the maximum time taken to perform reads by the top queries.	Seconds/read	The detailed diagnosis of this measure lists User ID, Query ID, Physical reads per execution, Physical writes per execution, Calls, Shared block hits, Shared block dirtied, Memory usage(in MB). Memory usage per execution(in MB), Read latency, Write latency, Block read time, Block write time, Elapsed time per execution(in seconds), SQL text.
Maximum write latency by queries	Indicates the maximum time taken to perform writes by the top queries.	Seconds/write	The detailed diagnosis of this measure lists User ID, Query ID, Physical reads per execution, Physical writes per execution, Calls, Shared block hits, Shared block dirtied, Memory usage(in MB). Memory usage per execution(in MB), Read latency, Write latency, Block read time, Block write time, Elapsed time per execution(in seconds), SQL text.