What this book covers
This book will guide you through a variety of topics related to PostgreSQL replication. We will present all the important facts in 15 practical and easy-to-read chapters:
Chapter 1, Understanding the Concepts of Replication, guides you through fundamental replication concepts such as synchronous, as well as asynchronous, replication. You will learn about the physical limitations of replication, which options you have and what kind of distinctions there are.
Chapter 2, Understanding the PostgreSQL Transaction Log, introduces you to the PostgreSQL internal transaction log machinery and presents concepts essential to many replication techniques.
Chapter 3, Understanding Point-in-time Recovery, is the next logical step and outlines how the PostgreSQL transaction log will help you to utilize Point-in-time Recovery to move your database instance back to a desired point in time.
Chapter 4, Setting Up Asynchronous Replication, describes how to configure asynchronous master-slave replication.
Chapter 5, Setting Up Synchronous Replication, is one step beyond asynchronous replication and offers a way to guarantee zero data loss if a node fails. You will learn about all the aspects of synchronous replication.
Chapter 6, Monitoring Your Setup, covers PostgreSQL monitoring.
Chapter 7, Understanding Linux High Availability, presents a basic introduction to Linux-HA and presents a set of ideas for making your systems more available and more secure. Since the first edition, this chapter has been completely rewritten and made a lot more practical.
Chapter 8, Working with PgBouncer, deals with PgBouncer, which is very often used along with PostgreSQL replication. You will learn how to configure PgBouncer and boost the performance of your PostgreSQL infrastructure.
Chapter 9, Working with pgpool, covers one more tool capable of handling replication and PostgreSQL connection pooling.
Chapter 10, Configuring Slony, contains a practical guide to using Slony and shows how you can use this tool fast and efficiently to replicate sets of tables.
Chapter 11, Using SkyTools, offers you an alternative to Slony and outlines how you can introduce generic queues to PostgreSQL and utilize Londiste replication to dispatch data in a large infrastructure.
Chapter 12, Working with Postgres-XC, offers an introduction to a synchronous multimaster replication solution capable of partitioning a query across many nodes inside your cluster while still providing you with a consistent view of the data.
Chapter 13, Scaling with PL/Proxy, describes how you can break the chains and scale out infinitely across a large server farm.
Chapter 14, Scaling with BDR, describes the basic concepts and workings of the BDR replication system. It shows how BDR can be configured and how it operates as the basis for a modern PostgreSQL cluster.
Chapter 15, Working with Walbouncer, shows how transaction log can be replicated partially using the walbouncer tool. It dissects the PostgreSQL XLOG and makes sure that the transaction log stream can be distributed to many nodes in the cluster.
