PostgreSQL

This document describes how to configure your Google Kubernetes Engine deployment so that you can use Google Cloud Managed Service for Prometheus to collect metrics from PostgreSQL. This document shows you how to do the following:

Set up the exporter for PostgreSQL to report metrics.
Configure a PodMonitoring resource for Managed Service for Prometheus to collect the exported metrics.
Access a dashboard in Cloud Monitoring to view the metrics.
Configure alerting rules to monitor the metrics.

These instructions apply only if you are using managed collection with Managed Service for Prometheus. If you are using self-deployed collection, then see the source repository for the PostgreSQL exporter for installation information.

These instructions are provided as an example and are expected to work in most Kubernetes environments. If you are having trouble installing an application or exporter due to restrictive security or organizational policies, then we recommend you consult open-source documentation for support.

For information about PostgreSQL, see PostgreSQL.

Prerequisites

To collect metrics from PostgreSQL by using Managed Service for Prometheus and managed collection, your deployment must meet the following requirements:

Your cluster must be running Google Kubernetes Engine version 1.21.4-gke.300 or later.
You must be running Managed Service for Prometheus with managed collection enabled. For more information, see Get started with managed collection.
To use dashboards available in Cloud Monitoring for the PostgreSQL integration, you must use postgres_exporter version v0.11.1 or later.
For more information about available dashboards, see View dashboards.

For information about creating a least-privileged user, see Running as non-superuser.

Install the PostgreSQL exporter

We recommend that you install the PostgreSQL exporter, postgres_exporter, as a sidecar to your PostgreSQL workload. For information about using sidecars, see Extended applications on Kubernetes with multi-container pods.

To install postgres_exporter as a sidecar to PostgreSQL, modify your PostgreSQL configuration as shown in the following example:

# Copyright 2022 Google LLC
#
# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
# You may obtain a copy of the License at
#
#     https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
#
# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
# limitations under the License.

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: StatefulSet
metadata:
  name: postgresql
spec:
  serviceName: postgresql
  selector:
    matchLabels:
+     app.kubernetes.io/name: postgresql
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
+       app.kubernetes.io/name: postgresql
    spec:
      containers:
      - image: postgres:15.3
        name: postgresql
        env:
        - name: POSTGRES_USER
          value: root
        - name: POSTGRES_PASSWORD
          value: password
        - name: POSTGRES_DB
          value: dev
+     - name: exporter
+       image: quay.io/prometheuscommunity/postgres-exporter:v0.14.0
+       args:
+         - --collector.stat_statements
+       env:
+       - name: DATA_SOURCE_NAME
+         value: postgresql://root:password@localhost:5432/dev?sslmode=disable
+       ports:
+       - containerPort: 9187
+         name: prometheus

You must add any lines preceded by the + symbol to your configuration.

Update the DATA_SOURCE_NAME environment variable with credentials that work with your PostgreSQL instance.

To apply configuration changes from a local file, run the following command:

kubectl apply -n NAMESPACE_NAME -f FILE_NAME

You can also use Terraform to manage your configurations.

Define a PodMonitoring resource

For target discovery, the Managed Service for Prometheus Operator requires a PodMonitoring resource that corresponds to the PostgreSQL exporter in the same namespace.

You can use the following PodMonitoring configuration:

# Copyright 2022 Google LLC
#
# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
# You may obtain a copy of the License at
#
#     https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
#
# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
# limitations under the License.

apiVersion: monitoring.googleapis.com/v1
kind: PodMonitoring
metadata:
  name: postgresql
  labels:
    app.kubernetes.io/name: postgresql
    app.kubernetes.io/part-of: google-cloud-managed-prometheus
spec:
  endpoints:
  - port: prometheus
    scheme: http
    interval: 30s
    path: /metrics
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app.kubernetes.io/name: postgresql

Ensure that the label selectors and the port match the selectors and port used in Install the PostgreSQL exporter.

To apply configuration changes from a local file, run the following command:

kubectl apply -n NAMESPACE_NAME -f FILE_NAME

You can also use Terraform to manage your configurations.

Define rules and alerts

You can use the following Rules configuration to define alerts on your PostgreSQL metrics:

# Copyright 2022 Google LLC
#
# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
# You may obtain a copy of the License at
#
#     https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
#
# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
# limitations under the License.

apiVersion: monitoring.googleapis.com/v1
kind: Rules
metadata:
  name: postgresql-rules
  labels:
    app.kubernetes.io/component: rules
    app.kubernetes.io/name: postgresql-rules
    app.kubernetes.io/part-of: google-cloud-managed-prometheus
spec:
  groups:
  - name: postgresql
    interval: 30s
    rules:
    - alert: PostgreSQLDatabaseSizeTooLarge
      annotations:
        description: |-
          PostgreSQL database size too large
            VALUE = {{ $value }}
            LABELS: {{ $labels }}
        summary: PostgreSQL database size too large (instance {{ $labels.instance }})
      expr: pg_database_size_bytes > 100000000000
      for: 5m
      labels:
        severity: warning

To apply configuration changes from a local file, run the following command:

kubectl apply -n NAMESPACE_NAME -f FILE_NAME

You can also use Terraform to manage your configurations.

For more information about applying rules to your cluster, see Managed rule evaluation and alerting.

You can adjust the alert thresholds to suit your application.

Verify the configuration

You can use Metrics Explorer to verify that you correctly configured the PostgreSQL exporter. It might take one or two minutes for Cloud Monitoring to ingest your metrics.

To verify the metrics are ingested, do the following:

In the Google Cloud console, go to the Metrics explorer page:
Go to Metrics explorer

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 MQL or 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 and run the following query:

up{job="postgresql", cluster="CLUSTER_NAME", namespace="NAMESPACE_NAME"}

View dashboards

The Cloud Monitoring integration includes the PostgreSQL Prometheus Overview dashboard. Dashboards are automatically installed when you configure the integration. 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:
Go to Dashboards

If you use the search bar to find this page, then select the result whose subheading is Monitoring.
Select the Dashboard List tab.
Choose the Integrations category.
Click the name of the dashboard, for example, PostgreSQL Prometheus Overview.

To view a static preview of the dashboard, do the following:

In the Google Cloud console, go to the Integrations page:
Go to Integrations

If you use the search bar to find this page, then select the result whose subheading is Monitoring.
Click the Kubernetes Engine deployment-platform filter.
Locate the PostgreSQL integration and click View Details.
Select the Dashboards tab.

Troubleshooting

For information about troubleshooting metric ingestion problems, see Problems with collection from exporters in Troubleshooting ingestion-side problems.