Last week I was invited by the Dutch PostgreSQL User Group in Amsterdam to speak on PostgreSQL Administration Recipes. It was the first session of 2016, and the third since they started meeting last year.
Using the simple format of a cooking recipe, I presented some techniques that a PostgreSQL DBA can use to solve recurring problems, for instance: change your password without leaving traces of the new password around; quickly estimate the number of rows in a table; see which parameters have a non-default setting; temporarily disable an index without dropping it. The last recipe was more philosophical: plan your backups, or better yet, plan your recovery!
After my talk I listened to the interesting presentation from Reiner Peterke who described pg_inside, his tool for collecting PostgreSQL statistics.
I was pleased to find a lively audience who asked some interesting questions. I was also asked to publish my slides, which are now available here.
I shall close with a historic note: as far as I know, this is the first community event organised in the Netherlands since the 2011 European PostgreSQL conference in Amsterdam. I was one of the speakers back then and I have fond memories; most of all, my lightning talk on Barman anticipating the ongoing work of my colleagues. That was indeed the very first public mention of an outstanding Disaster Recovery tool, which is now extremely popular.
I also recall meeting several local PostgreSQL users at that conference, and this is why I am particularly glad to join the effort of growing the Dutch PostgreSQL community. My thanks go to the organisers (Coen Hamers and Jolijn Bos from Splendid Data) and to IBM who hosted the event in their space inside B.Amsterdam, for creating a great opportunity to discuss The World’s Most Advanced Open Source Database.
