Administration Status

Inspect PostgreSQL Sequences with the pg_sequences View pg_sequences is the catalog-backed view that exposes every sequence in the current database in one readable row each — start_value, min_value, max_value, increment_by, cache_size, cycle, and the all-important last_value. It turns a scattered set of per-sequence …

timestamptz and tzdata: Avoid Shifted PostgreSQL Timestamps PostgreSQL stores every timestamptz value as UTC and converts it to the session's time zone only at display time. That design is correct and elegant — until a tzdata update changes the offset rules for a region, at which point timestamps inserted under the old …

List All PostgreSQL Triggers with Their State A disabled trigger is invisible until something it should have done goes missing. The audit row that never got written, the derived column that stopped updating, the constraint check that silently stopped firing — each traces back to a trigger left in the disabled state …

PostgreSQL Column-Level Permissions Audit Query Which roles can read which columns? Table-level grants are easy to list, but they hide a finer layer of access. A role denied SELECT on a table can still hold SELECT on two of its columns, and that is exactly where personal data quietly stays reachable after a wider grant …

List PostgreSQL Wait Events with the pg_wait_events View PostgreSQL 17 added pg_wait_events, a system view that enumerates every wait event the running server can record. Prior to 17 the same information lived only in the documentation — no in-database way to confirm a wait name or attach a description to it. The view …

Monitor PostgreSQL Replication Lag with pg_stat_replication A standby lagging more than a few seconds is rarely a transient hiccup — it is a query backlog on the standby, a network ceiling between the nodes, a misconfigured hot_standby_feedback, or a single-threaded apply storm. pg_stat_replication joined to …

Understanding PostgreSQL Wait Events for Performance Analysis Every active PostgreSQL backend is either executing work or waiting. When a session waits, PostgreSQL records the reason in pg_stat_activity using two columns: wait_event_type and wait_event. Aggregating these across all sessions gives a clear picture of …

Tracking Active Vacuum and Autovacuum Workers in PostgreSQL PostgreSQL vacuum is the maintenance process that removes dead tuples left behind by updates and deletes, reclaims storage, and prevents transaction ID wraparound. On active databases, autovacuum runs continuously in the background, but knowing whether it is …

Check Replica Identity Settings in PostgreSQL Logical replication in PostgreSQL requires each replicated table to have a replica identity. The replica identity tells PostgreSQL which columns to include in the WAL record for UPDATE and DELETE operations so the subscriber can identify the row being changed. If replica …

How to List Collations Available in PostgreSQL A collation defines the rules for sorting and comparing text. It controls how ORDER BY handles strings, whether a and A compare as equal, and how accented characters rank relative to unaccented ones. Every text column in PostgreSQL has a collation, either inherited from …