Definition of PostgreSQL Administration
PostgreSQL administration is used to authenticate the database from unauthenticated users, PostgreSQL administration is very important to give appropriate access to the database, tables, and all the object. Roles and users are used in PostgreSQL administration to authenticate with the database. There are many methods that have used to authenticate the database from users like trust, MD5, LDAP, password, SSPI, Kerberos, ident, peer radius, certificate, PAM. These methods have different authentication algorithms to authenticate with the database, basically, we have used MD5 authentication methods to authenticate the database users in PostgreSQL.
Why Do We Need a PostgreSQL Administration?
Below is the need of administration in PostgreSQL.
- In PostgreSQL roles and users play very important functions. The role does not have default login privileges whereas the user has default login privileges to the database.
- The main need for PostgreSQL administration is to authenticate the database from unauthorized access.
- If we do not administer our database then it will access from the unauthenticated user.
- Roles and user management are very important in PostgreSQL, to provide appropriate access to each and every user.
- If we give inappropriate privileges to the user then it will happen that data will be misused.
- As per standard guidelines, it is mandatory to give appropriate privileges to every user. Superuser privileges are not given to any other users.
- In PostgreSQL, Postgres is a superuser, this user has all privileges to access the database.
- As per PostgreSQL administration, we need to take a backup of the database as per policy, to avoid any loss of data.
- If we have does not have a backup of data and suddenly our database will be crash then it will be chances of data loss.
- To avoid data loss we need to take backup as per backup policy. The backup policy will be defined as per Full, Incremental and differential basis.
- PostgreSQL backup mainly divided into two types.
- Logical
- Physical
- We have taken a backup of logical backup using pg_dump or pg_dumpall command and physical backup using a pg_basebackup or from third-party tools like pgBackRest etc.
How Does PostgreSQL Administration Work?
Below is the process on how PostgreSQL administration works.
- We have used rules and users to authenticate the database in PostgreSQL. Users have default login privileges to the database whereas role does not have login privileges to the database.
- Users’ default connection database is Postgres.
- If any user connects to the PostgreSQL database, he needs sufficient privileges to access the database.
- In PostgreSQL, database-level users required to connect privileges, in schema level it requires user privileges on the specified schema.
- Also, we need the user who was created on the database to access the database and need to give specific privileges on the database.
- After user creation we need to put user entry in the conf file, this is the authentication file of PostgreSQL database.
- This file contains the user name, database name, hostname from whom we have access to the database also we need to mention authentication methods for that user.
- Below is the default setting of pg_hba.conf file as follows.
- We can access the PostgreSQL database from localhost or any host. We need to define the IP address of that host in pg_hba.conf file.
- The user is connected to the database using authentication methods. If authentication is successful then the user connected to a specific database otherwise it will disconnect with an error.
- After authentication user have access to the database and execute the query on which the user has access.
- If a user does not have access to execute the specified query it will throw an error that “Permission Denied”.
- The user also connects through peer authentication in PostgreSQL, it will access through OS user authentication. But in this case, we need both the user to have the same name.
- Below is the PostgreSQL configuration files are as follows.
- Postgresql.conf
- Pg_hba.conf
- postgresql.auto.auto.conf
- pg_ident.conf
- There are multiple methods of authentication used in PostgreSQL like trust, MD5, LDAP, password, SSPI, Kerberos, ident, peer radius, certificate, PAM.
- These methods have different authentication algorithms for each, basically, we have used MD5 authentication methods to authenticate the database from users in PostgreSQL.
Roles of PostgreSQL Administration
Below are the roles of PostgreSQL administration.
- Roles and users are very important in PostgreSQL to administer the database. User has default login privileges to the database. Roles do not have default login privileges to the database.
- We can consider the role as a group in PostgreSQL.
- PostgreSQL roles are very important to administer the PostgreSQL database.
- Roles and users are used in PostgreSQL administration to authenticate with the database.
- There are multiple methods of authentication that have used to authenticate the database from the user.
- PostgreSQL administration is used to authenticate the database from unauthenticated access, PostgreSQL administration is very important to give appropriate access to the database, tables, and all the objects.
- We can see PostgreSQL users and roles by using the following command. The default administrative user is postgres.
- Postgres is a default administrative user which has full access and grant on the database.
- Please find below image to find database users in PostgreSQL.
postgres=# \du
- Below is the command that we create a new role in PostgreSQL database are as follows.
postgres=# create role "test" with password 'test@123';
postgres=# \du
- PostgreSQL role default doesn’t have default privileges as shown in above figure. We need to give it manually.
- Below command shows how to give login privileges to role in PostgreSQL.
alter role “test” with login;
\du
Advantages of PostgreSQL Administration
Below are the advantages of PostgreSQL administration.
- Using PostgreSQL administration we can prevent the data loss by taking backup as per backup policy.
- We can prevent the access of users by using proper authentication methods in PostgreSQL.
- We can prevent the user by giving appropriate access to the database.
- Using PostgreSQL administration we can implement a high availability solution to avoid downtime in the production environment.
Conclusion
PostgreSQL role and the user are plays a very important role in PostgreSQL administration. The role does not have default login privileges whereas the user has default login privileges to the database. The main need for PostgreSQL administration is to authenticate the database from unauthorized access.
Recommended Articles
This is a guide to PostgreSQL Administration. Here we discuss the Introduction and how does PostgreSQL administration work along with different examples and its code implementation. you may also have a look at the following articles to learn more –
