Find Out How

Prerequisites

In order to monitor a PostgreSQL server, the SOASTA sBox must be able to establish a TCP/IP connection to the server. If you are not sure how to enable this, consult the "Client Authentication" section of the PostgreSQL documentation.

If a firewall prevents TCP/IP access, see the topic "Monitoring a Server Behind a Firewall".

In addition, the PostgreSQL stats_row_level parameter must be set to "true". If you are not sure how to enable this, consult the "Statistics Collection Configuration" section of the PostgreSQL documentation.

Supported Versions

SOASTA CloudTest can currently monitor PostgreSQL 7.4 and PostgreSQL 8.x.

Steps

1. From the SOASTA CloudTest Repository screen, select "Monitoring Servers" under the "Server Resources" section in the Navigator.

2. After selecting "Monitoring Servers" from the Navigator, click the "New" icon. The Monitoring Server / Monitor wizard appears:

3. Select “Monitor Server” and click Next.  The “Name and Connection” step is shown.

4. Type a name for the Monitoring Server and optionally provide a description.  Finally type the hostname or IP address of the server into the “Host” field and click Next.

5. The “Resources” step is shown. Check "Databases" and click Next.

6. Select PostgreSQL, then enter the TCP/IP port number, the user name, and password. The usual port number for PostgreSQL is 5432.

7. Click the Test Connection button to test the connection. If the connection is successful, you will see a pop-up containing some information about the PostgreSQL server. If the connection fails, you will see an error message explaining what went wrong.

8. Click Next.

9. Review the information to be sure it is correct, then check the "Create a new Monitor for this Monitor Server" box and click Finish.

10. Enter a name for the Monitor and an optional description, then click Next.

11. At this point you can choose which statistics you are interested in. For each statistic, you can choose a "sample rate" which determines how often that statistic will be collected.

• The "Commits" statistic tracks the number of database commits per second.
• The "Rollbacks" statistic tracks the number of database rollbacks per second.
• The "Total Connections" statistic tracks the number of users connected to the PostgreSQL server. This will never be zero, because monitoring itself uses at least one connection.
• The "Per Catalog Connections" statistic tracks the number of users connected to a specific PostgreSQL database. If you use this statistic, you must enter the name of the database in the "Arguments" column.

When you are finished, click Next.

Review the information to be sure it is correct, then click Finish.

Next steps

• To start or stop monitoring, see Starting and Stopping a Monitor
• To view the collected data, see The Monitor Analytic Dashboard
• To automatically monitor the PostgreSQL server every time a certain test starts, see the topic "Starting a Monitor Automatically When a Test Composition Runs"

You can also combine system, J2EE, and ColdFusion statistics in the same monitor.