Regular Maintenance
In these busy times, many people believe if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it. I believe that too, but it isn’t an excuse for not taking action to maintain your database servers and be sure that nothing will break.
Database maintenance is about making your database run smoothly.
PostgreSQL prefers regular maintenance, so please read the Planning maintenance recipe in this chapter for more information.
We recognize that you’re here for a reason and are looking for a quick solution to your needs. You’re probably thinking – Fix the problem first, and I’ll plan later. So, off we go!
PostgreSQL provides a utility command named VACUUM
, which is a reference to a garbage collector that sweeps up all of the bad things and fixes them – or at least most of them. That’s the single most important thing you need to remember to do – I say single because VACUUM
is closely connected to the ANALYZE...