Postgres Enterprise Manager, or PEM as we tend to call it, is based on the Open Source pgAdmin project which I started over thirteen(!) years ago to give users a graphical tool for managing and developing their Postgres databases. PEM builds on pgAdmin by adding a number of features for sysadmins, DBAs and developers with a focus on management of multiple servers, adding features such as:

- A centralised directory of servers allows all users in the organisation to quickly and easily manage any server.

- Monitoring and logging of hundreds of different metrics from database objects, the Postgres server, and the host/operating system.

- Over 130 different alert templates that may be used to build customised alerts to warn when aspects of your database go outside of the norm. A number of preconfigured alerts help get you up and running quickly and easily.

- A Capacity Manager that allows you to generate reports based on the metrics collected from your databases, Postgres servers and hosts/operating systems. Metrics from different aspects of your system can be charted together, allowing you to correlate database events with operating system activity for example. Linear trend analysis features allow you to project usage trends into the future to help with capacity planning.

- The Postgres Expert analyses your Postgres servers and database schemas, advising on possible misconfigurations or sub-optimal designs. This “DBA in a box” can analyse your entire Postgres deployment in seconds.

- A number of Performance Monitoring Dashboards give the DBA and sysadmin a global overview of the state of the database servers, with the ability to drill down and examine the status of individual hosts, Postgres servers and databases at a glance.

- A SQL Profiler for developers working with Postgres. This tool allows users to capture workloads running on their server and examine each query in detail, viewing the query plan and resource/execution statistics for each individual query, and aggregate statistics for each different query executed with the workload captured. Poorly running queries can also be run through the Index Advisor when work working with Postgres Plus Advanced Server advising on and optionally creating new indexes to improve query performance.

PEM uses a multi-tier architecture. Each managed host runs a copy of an efficient agent (written in C++, and available on Linux, Windows and Solaris) which executes tasks and reports metrics from the host/operating system and one or more Postgres servers running on the host, back to the PEM server. The PEM server is an instance of PostgreSQL 9.0 typically run on a dedicated host (running Windows or Linux), which includes various additional software components including functionality for managing SSL certificates and a dedicated instance of the PEM agent responsible for tasks such as alert processing and garbage collection. The PEM client runs on users Windows or Linux workstations and provides the user interface to the system allowing the user to connect to the PEM server and use all the PEM features, or connect to unmanaged servers as you would with pgAdmin. One feature that can be used on servers that aren’t managed by PEM (for example, a server on a laptop) is the SQL Profiler. All that’s required to use the SQL Profiler is a plugin to the Postgres server that you wish to profile which hooks into the server to log the trace data – ideal for developers.

As far as I’m aware, PEM is the first management tool for Postgres that offers anything even close to this feature set, and we’re already working on adding more for the next version, but while we’re hacking on that why not give the first version a try.

Companies such as Sony Online Entertainment and FTD have already enjoyed considerable savings by migrating from Oracle to Postgres Plus Advanced Server using our Oracle compatibility technology.  In fact, the technology is so reputable that IBM recently licensed it for use in DB2.

We created the Oracle Migration Assessment Program after Oracle recently raised prices on database modules by as much as 40 percent. This comes on the heels of license increases of up to 20 percent in 2008.  An Oracle Migration Assessment report from EnterpriseDB scans, analyzes, categorizes, details, and scores the work necessary to move your Oracle database to the open source based, Oracle compatible, and reasonably priced Postgres Plus Advanced Server.

The program enables enterprises to migrate their applications running on Oracle to Postgres Plus Advanced Server, a PostgreSQL-based database containing an Oracle compatibility layer, with no disruption to operations, and delivers ongoing cost savings of 80 percent or more.

Your Oracle Migration Assessment is performed by an experienced Oracle engineer who will work with your staff to provide you an accurate and reliable report on the viability of migrating your Oracle database complete with time and cost estimates.  You can have our migration experts assist you or have us do all the work.  We also have a full suite of tools, documentation, training, and best practices to guide you through doing the switch yourself.

Interested in trying out our new program?  Read more about it here, or contact us to schedule your Oracle Migration Assessment today.

http://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/Todo#Features_We_Do_Not_Want

The open source dweeb in me agrees with the community’s philosophies that PostgreSQL’s optimizer should be made smarter and the obfuscation is not 100% effective, but both features fill a business need. For EDB*Wrap, the business need is to make it difficult for people to see the source code of a stored procedure when it is sent as a plain text file.

So while it is not 100% effective, when an ISV shipping their stored procedure code encounters a malicious user who has the ability to turn:

$__EDBwrapped__$
UTF8
d86XAumhB/6bQTdJStisuVDG2FE3+vUz2Bjq2neAax7iG8Vg2++x1stc0gN3pCDO1+jnOc7orT9X
4sepJrX8Vn2nEf58u+V6f5UWLj43i2hDCO9iPyEa08jA8CuTFq0dL+B0DK5ymSL2MIrRMOz/eGn0
XEaU9TgaraXbIJhlNtCf
$__EDBwrapped__$

Into:
CREATE FUNCTION foo() RETURNS integer AS $$
BEGIN
RETURN 1;
END;
$$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;

That same user can also decompile their main application and their whole application becomes “open source” to the bad guy. In the commercial world, it is hard to hold back features customers are requesting because of a corner case you can manage through other means.

This customer-driven release continues to build beyond the features and performance found in the community version of PostgreSQL while decreasing the risk and cost in time, money, and re-training to switch to an affordable open source database technology. The new capabilities focus on deeper Oracle compatibility, even easier migrations from other databases, and performance and scalability unmatched by any PostgreSQL database. Additionally, there are multiple component maintenance upgrades and over 200 minor fixes and enhancements.

What’s in it for you? Some of the release highlights include:

• Deeper Oracle support for objects, packages, transaction management, and migration reduces the risk and cost of adopting open source database technology by allowing you to better leverage your investment in Oracle skills and lower the cost of migrating and adopting a world class open source database built on PostgreSQL
• Infinite Cache improves performance up to 5 times faster than the PostgreSQL community version while reducing costs for massive scalability across your existing commodity hardware footprint
• LDAP and PAM Security support allow easier application customization while EDB*Wrap protects sensitive or proprietary code
• New / updated documentation

Download 8.3 R2 now for Linux, Windows or Mac. For all the details inside the release, see the Release Notes at the same link above or check out the documentation.

The award-winning Postgres Plus products based on PostgreSQL come available with industry leading services such as 24×7 technical support, expert-delivered training for DBAs and application developers, pre-packaged services, and professional consulting.