Since the Oracle bought Sun (including MySQL), I wanted to improve my knowledge about other databases and to check the alternatives (in case “something” happens to MySQL).
Luckily, MySQL is still here and it still works fine but in the last couple of months, I wanted to dig a little bit about PostgreSQL. I thought that it would be easy to find online tutorials about this topic but I noticed that online tutorials and forums about PostgreSQL are not so popular. Don’t get me wrong, there are several blogs which fits perfectly in my learning habits but spending so much time just to find the basic things is not what I wanted.
I found a link about Packt Publishing free PostgreSQL backup e-book and I didn’t wait (LINK). I posted a comment and couple days later received Packt account with two books
- Instant PostgreSQL Backup and Restore How-to by Shaun Thomas and
- Instant PostgreSQL Starter by Daniel K. Lyons
Instant PostgreSQL Starter by Daniel K. Lyons was exactly what I was looking for. A small (48 pages) book was right away uploaded to my DropBox so I can have it where ever I go. The book covers everything you need to start with Postgresql.
You will learn how to install Postgresql, how to connect and create your first database. The book also covers basic SQL queries for creating tables, CRUD (create, read, update and delete records), etc. The last part of the book contains some features you should also know (how to store passwords, working with XML, Full text search and basic options for improving speed and security). Couple advices about backups are also there.
Using pgAdmin III as a GUI tool won’t be a problem because the book contains pgAdmin screenshots.
Don’t get me wrong…. The book has only 48 pages and it can be compared with a cheat sheet but it is a very good portable book. Learning Postgresql can take only one afternoon and in less than a weekend you’ll became a “usable” DBA.
After the Postgresql starter book, I switched to PostgreSQL Backup and Restore How-to. We usually like to say that backup doesn’t have the price and every DBA should know everything about creating and restoring backups.
This (55 page) book is a step-by-step guide to backing up and restoring your database which covers:
- basic and partial exports,
- simple restore,
- creating and restoring binary backups,
- compressing backups
- taking snapshots
- sync backups
- point in time recovery
- warm and hot standby restore
- streaming replication
Just like the first book, this one is also uploaded to my DropBox. Having those books with you is a nice idea and I highly recommend them to all Postgresql beginners. You can buy them as an e-book and as a hard copy.