The PostgreSQL integration collects database-usage metrics, such as the database size, the number of backends, or the number of operations. The integration also collects PostgreSQL logs and parses them into a JSON payload. This result includes fields for role, user, level, and message.
For more information about PostgreSQL, see the PostgreSQL documentation .
Prerequisites
To collect PostgreSQL telemetry, you must install the Ops Agent :
- For metrics, install version 2.21.0 or higher.
- For logs, install version 2.9.0 or higher.
This integration supports PostgreSQL version 10.18+.
Configure your PostgreSQL instance
The postgresql 
receiver connects by default to a local postgresql 
server using a Unix socket and Unix authentication as the root 
user.
Configure the Ops Agent for PostgreSQL
Following the guide to Configure the Ops Agent , add the required elements to collect telemetry from PostgreSQL instances, and restart the agent .
Example configuration
The following commands create the configuration to collect and ingest telemetry for PostgreSQL:
For these changes to take effect, you must restart the Ops Agent:
Linux
- To restart the agent, run the following command on your instance: sudo systemctl restart google-cloud-ops-agent 
- To confirm that the agent restarted, run the following command and
   verify that the components "Metrics Agent" and "Logging Agent" started: sudo systemctl status "google-cloud-ops-agent*" 
Windows
- Connect to your instance using RDP or a similar tool and login to Windows.
- Open a PowerShell terminal with administrator privileges by right-clicking the PowerShell icon and selecting Run as Administrator
- To restart the agent, run the following PowerShell command: Restart-Service google-cloud-ops-agent -Force 
- To confirm that the agent restarted, run the following command and
    verify that the components "Metrics Agent" and "Logging Agent" started: Get-Service google-cloud-ops-agent* 
Configure logs collection
To ingest logs from PostgreSQL, you must create a receiver for the logs that PostgreSQL produces and then create a pipeline for the new receiver.
To configure a receiver for your postgresql_general 
logs, specify the following
fields:
| Field | Default | Description | 
|---|---|---|
| exclude_paths | A list of filesystem path patterns to exclude from the set matched by include_paths. | |
| include_paths | [/var/log/postgresql/postgresql*.log, /var/lib/pgsql/data/log/postgresql*.log, /var/lib/pgsql/*/data/log/postgresql*.log] | A list of filesystem paths to read by tailing each file. A wild card ( *) can be used in the paths. | 
| record_log_file_path | false | If set to true, then the path to the specific file from which the log record was obtained appears in the output log entry as the value of theagent.googleapis.com/log_file_pathlabel. When using a wildcard, only the path of the file from which the record was obtained is recorded. | 
| type | This value must be postgresql_general. | |
| wildcard_refresh_interval | 60s | The interval at which wildcard file paths in include_pathsare refreshed. Given as a time duration 
, for example30sor2m. This property might be useful under high logging throughputs where log files are rotated faster than the default interval. | 
What is logged
The logName 
is derived from
the receiver IDs specified in the configuration. Detailed fields inside the  LogEntry 
 
are as follows.
The postgresql_general 
logs contain the following fields in the LogEntry 
:
| Field | Type | Description | 
|---|---|---|
| jsonPayload.database | string | Database name for the action being logged when relevant | 
| jsonPayload.level | string | Log severity or type of database interaction type for some logs | 
| jsonPayload.message | string | Log of the database action | 
| jsonPayload.tid | number | Thread ID where the log originated | 
| jsonPayload.user | string | Authenticated user for the action being logged when relevant | 
| severity | string ( LogSeverity) | Log entry level (translated). | 
Configure metrics collection
To ingest metrics from PostgreSQL, you must create a receiver for the metrics that PostgreSQL produces and then create a pipeline for the new receiver.
This receiver does not support the use of multiple instances in the configuration, for example, to monitor multiple endpoints. All such instances write to the same time series, and Cloud Monitoring has no way to distinguish among them.
To configure a receiver for your postgresql 
metrics, specify the following
fields:
| Field | Default | Description | 
|---|---|---|
| ca_file | Path to the CA certificate. As a client, this verifies the server certificate. If empty, the receiver uses the system root CA. | |
| cert_file | Path to the TLS certificate to use for mTLS-required connections. | |
| collection_interval | 60s | A time duration 
value, such as 30sor5m. | 
| endpoint | /var/run/postgresql/.s.PGSQL.5432 | The hostname:portor Unix socket path starting with/used to connect to the PostgreSQL server. | 
| insecure | true | Sets whether or not to use a secure TLS connection. If set to false, then TLS is enabled. | 
| insecure_skip_verify | false | Sets whether or not to skip verifying the certificate. If insecureis set totrue, then theinsecure_skip_verifyvalue is not used. | 
| key_file | Path to the TLS key to use for mTLS-required connections. | |
| password | The password used to connect to the server. | |
| type | This value must be postgresql. | |
| username | The username used to connect to the server. | 
What is monitored
The following table provides the list of metrics that the Ops Agent collects from the PostgreSQL instance.
Monitored resources
workload.googleapis.com/postgresql.backends 
GAUGE 
,  INT64 
gce_instance
database 
workload.googleapis.com/postgresql.bgwriter.buffers.allocated 
CUMULATIVE 
,  INT64 
gce_instance
workload.googleapis.com/postgresql.bgwriter.buffers.writes 
CUMULATIVE 
,  INT64 
gce_instance
source 
workload.googleapis.com/postgresql.bgwriter.checkpoint.count 
CUMULATIVE 
,  INT64 
gce_instance
type 
workload.googleapis.com/postgresql.bgwriter.duration 
CUMULATIVE 
,  INT64 
gce_instance
type 
workload.googleapis.com/postgresql.bgwriter.maxwritten 
CUMULATIVE 
,  INT64 
gce_instance
workload.googleapis.com/postgresql.blocks_read 
CUMULATIVE 
,  INT64 
gce_instance
database 
source 
table 
workload.googleapis.com/postgresql.commits 
CUMULATIVE 
,  INT64 
gce_instance
database 
workload.googleapis.com/postgresql.connection.max 
GAUGE 
,  INT64 
gce_instance
workload.googleapis.com/postgresql.database.count 
GAUGE 
,  INT64 
gce_instance
workload.googleapis.com/postgresql.db_size 
GAUGE 
,  INT64 
gce_instance
database 
workload.googleapis.com/postgresql.index.scans 
CUMULATIVE 
,  INT64 
gce_instance
database 
index 
table 
workload.googleapis.com/postgresql.index.size 
GAUGE 
,  INT64 
gce_instance
database 
index 
table 
workload.googleapis.com/postgresql.operations 
CUMULATIVE 
,  INT64 
gce_instance
database 
operation 
table 
workload.googleapis.com/postgresql.replication.data_delay 
GAUGE 
,  INT64 
gce_instance
replication_client 
workload.googleapis.com/postgresql.rollbacks 
CUMULATIVE 
,  INT64 
gce_instance
database 
workload.googleapis.com/postgresql.rows 
GAUGE 
,  INT64 
gce_instance
database 
state 
table 
workload.googleapis.com/postgresql.table.count 
GAUGE 
,  INT64 
gce_instance
database 
workload.googleapis.com/postgresql.table.size 
GAUGE 
,  INT64 
gce_instance
database 
table 
workload.googleapis.com/postgresql.table.vacuum.count 
CUMULATIVE 
,  INT64 
gce_instance
database 
table 
workload.googleapis.com/postgresql.wal.age 
GAUGE 
,  INT64 
gce_instance
workload.googleapis.com/postgresql.wal.lag 
GAUGE 
,  INT64 
gce_instance
operation 
replication_client 
Verify the configuration
This section describes how to verify that you correctly configured the PostgreSQL receiver. It might take one or two minutes for the Ops Agent to begin collecting telemetry.
To verify that PostgreSQL logs are being sent to Cloud Logging, do the following:
-  In the Google Cloud console, go to the Logs Explorer page: If you use the search bar to find this page, then select the result whose subheading is Logging . 
- Enter the following query in the editor, and then click Run query 
:
 resource.type="gce_instance" log_id("postgresql_general")
To verify that PostgreSQL metrics are being sent to Cloud Monitoring, do the following:
-  In the Google Cloud console, go to the leaderboard Metrics explorer page: If you use the search bar to find this page, then select the result whose subheading is Monitoring . 
- In the toolbar of the query-builder pane, select the button whose name is either code MQL or code PromQL .
- Verify that PromQL is selected in the Language toggle. The language toggle is in the same toolbar that lets you format your query.
- Enter the following query in the editor, and then click Run query 
:
 {"workload.googleapis.com/postgresql.backends", monitored_resource="gce_instance"}
View dashboard
To view your PostgreSQL metrics, you must have a chart or dashboard configured. The PostgreSQL integration includes one or more dashboards for you. Any dashboards are automatically installed after you configure the integration and the Ops Agent has begun collecting metric data.
You can also view static previews of dashboards without installing the integration.
To view an installed dashboard, do the following:
-  In the Google Cloud console, go to the  Dashboards 
page: Dashboards 
page:If you use the search bar to find this page, then select the result whose subheading is Monitoring . 
- Select the Dashboard List tab, and then choose the Integrations category.
- Click the name of the dashboard you want to view.
If you have configured an integration but the dashboard has not been installed, then check that the Ops Agent is running. When there is no metric data for a chart in the dashboard, installation of the dashboard fails. After the Ops Agent begins collecting metrics, the dashboard is installed for you.
To view a static preview of the dashboard, do the following:
-  In the Google Cloud console, go to the  Integrations 
page: Integrations 
page:If you use the search bar to find this page, then select the result whose subheading is Monitoring . 
- Click the Compute Engine deployment-platform filter.
- Locate the entry for PostgreSQL and click View Details .
- Select the Dashboards tab to see a static preview. If the dashboard is installed, then you can navigate to it by clicking View dashboard .
For more information about dashboards in Cloud Monitoring, see Dashboards and charts .
For more information about using the Integrations page, see Manage integrations .
Install alerting policies
Alerting policies instruct Cloud Monitoring to notify you when specified conditions occur. The PostgreSQL integration includes one or more alerting policies for you to use. You can view and install these alerting policies from the Integrations page in Monitoring.
To view the descriptions of available alerting policies and install them, do the following:
-  In the Google Cloud console, go to the  Integrations 
page: Integrations 
page:If you use the search bar to find this page, then select the result whose subheading is Monitoring . 
- Locate the entry for PostgreSQL and click View Details .
- Select the Alerts tab. This tab provides descriptions of available alerting policies and provides an interface for installing them.
- Install alerting policies. Alerting policies need
        to know where to send notifications that the alert has been
        triggered, so they require information from you for installation.
        To install alerting policies, do the following: - From the list of available alerting policies, select those that you want to install.
-  In the Configure notifications section, select one or more notification channels. You have the option to disable the use of notification channels, but if you do, then your alerting policies fire silently. You can check their status in Monitoring, but you receive no notifications. For more information about notification channels, see Manage notification channels . 
- Click Create Policies .
 
For more information about alerting policies in Cloud Monitoring, see Introduction to alerting .
For more information about using the Integrations page, see Manage integrations .
What's next
For a walkthrough on how to use Ansible to install the Ops Agent, configure a third-party application, and install a sample dashboard, see the Install the Ops Agent to troubleshoot third-party applications video.

