Release Radar: Introducing EDB Postgres Advanced Server 15 - The Most Secure Postgres

EDB continues to lead as the only worldwide company to deliver innovative and low cost open-source-derived database solutions with commercial quality, ease of use, compatibility, scalability and performance for small or large-scale enterprises. 

EDB Postgres Advanced Server 15 (EPAS 15) was released February 14, 2023. EPAS 15 is built on open-source PostgreSQL 15.2, which introduced several usability improvements and operational enhancements for logical replication and backup and recovery. PostgreSQL 15 builds on the improvements of recent releases with noticeable gains for managing workloads in both local and distributed deployments. It also enhances sorting for improved performance. This release improves the developer experience with the addition of the popular MERGE command and adds more capabilities for observing the state of the database.

EPAS 15 adds several new security and compatibility enhancements Including Transparent Data Encryption, and several new Oracle compatibility functions and packages, which enables users to migrate their legacy Oracle databases without rewriting the business logic in the database.

PostgreSQL 15 Features

EPAS is built on PostgreSQL: taking the best features from Community PostgreSQL and building them into EPAS ensures that EPAS grows to help meet our customers’ needs. We recognize that Postgres is the most popular database in the world and we ride the wave of innovation by including key enhancements in every new release of EPAS.

Features from PostgreSQL 15 that are now part of EPAS 15 include the addition of the SQL standard MERGE command. This allows users to write conditional SQL statements that include INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE actions in a single statement, better options for backup compression including server-side compression and support for LZ4 and Zstandard compression, jsonlog—a new format for logging that outputs data into JSON formats, improved Logical Replication and optimized Sort Performance and Compression.

For a deeper dive of what’s new, read the PostgreSQL 15 Release Notes.

EPAS 15 Features

Staying current with Community PostgreSQL is just part of the EPAS 15 release. EPAS 15 adds several new features that make this the most securable Postgres available anywhere in the world. Among the advanced security and other enhanced features added to EPAS 15 are:

• Transparent Data Encryption (TDE)—this security feature encrypts, transparently to the user, any user data stored in the database system. User data includes the actual data stored in tables and other objects, as well as system catalog data such as the names of objects. This protects against private confidential information being read by unauthorized users due to misconfiguration, being stolen or misplaced. This feature is critical for organizations that want to use Postgres while keeping their customers’ data safe and private.
• Password obfuscation for LDAP Bind Password—the LDAP Bind Password used to check LDAP user accounts can now be hashed in the pg_hba.conf file. This is a much more secure option than storing LDAP Bind password in plain text where it may be viewed by unwanted users.
• Load data using - edb*loader without superuser—Ensuring your data is protected is important to us. We strive to find additional ways to limit the EPAS use cases that require unlimited privileges (superuser). We’re removing the restriction that only allows superuser to load data and instead relying on table privileges to control access.

EPAS 15 also has several new Oracle Compatibility functions and packages. EPAS boasts the industry’s most Oracle-compatible Postgres database. Oracle Compatibility enables you to use your existing Oracle database application against a Postgres platform with minimal changes. For customers looking for an Oracle alternative, EPAS 15 makes it easier to move than ever before. Here are some of the top new Oracle Compatibility features:

• Oracle Compatibility Functions—EPAS 15 adds additional Oracle standard functions to Postgres so that when you migrate, you won’t have to manually rewrite application SQL, stored procedures, functions or triggers when using this list of functions in Oracle:
  • extractvalue
  • rexp_like (PostgreSQL 15)
  • from_tz
  • to_timestamp_tz
  • to_clob
  • reverse
  • Numtodsinterval
• Oracle Compatibility Packages—Based on our experience assessing thousands of schemas, we have discovered that many older Oracle code bases use the HTP and HTF packages to work with HTML. Beginning in EPAS 15, these packages will be supported and you will no longer need to move your business logic into the application. This will increase the automation of Oracle migration tasks, make it easier to migrate older versions of Oracle and reduce manual rewrites when migrating. We’ve also expanded the number of subprograms that we support using the DBMS_UTILITY package.

Get Started

For more details and other enhancements in EPAS 15, be sure to read the EDB Postgres Advanced Server documentation and EPAS 15 release notes. You can also watch our on-demand webinar, Introducing EPAS 15 - The Most Secure Postgres with EDB Sr. Product Manager, Adam Wright.