Alicja Kucharczyk: Leveraging pgBadger for Effective PostgreSQL Troubleshooting (PGConf.EU 2023)

Here is the meta description: Leverage pgBadger, a powerful PostgreSQL troubleshooting tool, to improve database performance, identify slow queries, and resolve common issues with expert guidance from Alicja Kucharczyk.

Key takeaways

Summary of Key Points

pgBadger is a great tool for PostgreSQL troubleshooting
It’s often underestimated, but can provide valuable insights into database performance
Alicia Kucharczyk, principal program manager at Microsoft, uses pgBadger extensively
Alicia’s talk covered leveraging pgBadger for effective PostgreSQL troubleshooting

Guidelines for Using pgBadger

Set logging collector to capture logs
Enable pgBadger on the Postgres instance
Set up the pagBadger report to generate a JSON output
Use JQ to parse the JSON output and create a readable report

pgBadger Report

Shows aggregation of events (errors, warnings, fatals)
Shows queries and timeline of events
Can spot common errors and problems
Can identify slow queries and high resource usage

Troubleshooting Tips

Check for syntax errors
Check for connection issues
Check for lock mean duration statement
Check for temporary file growth
Check for auto vacuum settings and performance

pgBadger Options

Set workman value to adjust parsing performance
Set prefix for log lines (e.g. DB percent)
Use JQ to parse and filter the report
Customize pgBadger to suit your needs

Common Issues and Solutions

Auto vacuum issues: check vacuum threshold and scale factor
Connection issues: check client host IP and user
Temporary file growth: check table size and data distribution
Lock mean duration statement: check for long-running queries