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Stop treating Pgpool-II as a "black box" and start harnessing its full power for connection pooling, load balancing, and high availability. This course demystifies the setup and configuration of Pgpool-II, ensuring your team can deploy a resilient and performant proxy layer that maximizes your Postgres cluster's potential.

 

This course focuses entirely on the architecture, setup, and maintenance of the essential Postgres proxy component.

 

Core concepts

Foundational Setup  

 Installation and Configuration Mastery

Client Authentication    

Demystifying Authentication. A clear, step by step guide to all authentication methods. The pros and cons of each.

Performance & Scaling    

Load Balancing and Connection Pooling. Implementing read/write query splitting for massive performance gains.

High Availability    

Redundancy with Watchdog. Building a robust Pgpool-II cluster to eliminate the single point of failure (SPOF).

 

Detailed Course Topics

 

Our curriculum is designed to move beyond theory and provide practical expertise in every critical Pgpool-II function.

 

Setup and Configuration Fundamentals

 

In depth guide to installation from source.

Initial Configuration. Mastering pgpool.conf, understanding and setting up backend nodes (Postgres primary and standby servers).

Connection Pooling. Configuration to minimize connection overhead and improve application throughput.

Health Checks. Setting up robust, non intrusive health checks to quickly identify and isolate failed backend nodes.

 

Demystifying Authentication

 

Pgpool-II's two stage authentication is often the biggest hurdle. We make it simple.

The Two Tier Model. Understanding client to Pgpool-II and Pgpool-II to Postgres authentication.

Client Authentication. How to control client access with trust, clear-text, and secure methods like MD5 and SCRAM-SHA-256.

Password Management. Properly creating and maintaining the credential file used by Pgpool-II to connect to the backend Postgres servers.

 

 

Load Balancing and Query Routing

 

Load Balancing Setup. Enabling and configuring load_balance_mode for read scalability.

Query Splitting. How Pgpool-II intelligently routes SELECT (read) queries to standbys and INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE (write) queries to the primary.

Weighted Load Balancing.  Fine tuning the distribution of read traffic using backend_weight.

Session vs. Statement Mode. Understanding the trade offs and when to use each load balancing strategy.

 

High Availability and Watchdog

 

Eliminate the single point of failure by making Pgpool-II itself highly available.

Watchdog Redundancy:. Setting up a cluster of multiple Pgpool-II nodes.

Active/Standby/Leader Election. Understanding how watchdog coordinates and promotes nodes.

Virtual IP (VIP) Management. Configuring the shared network address (delegate_IP) that automatically shifts between active Pgpool-II nodes upon failure.

Quorum and Split Brain Prevention: Strategies and configurations to ensure cluster stability and prevent catastrophic failure scenarios.

A clear understanding and formula for determining the number of nodes needed.

 

System Requirements & Environment

 

To ensure a seamless and consistent hands-on experience, all attendees will receive Docker images that contain the complete class environment, including a Pgpool-II cluster and multiple Postgres backend servers.

Attendees MUST have Docker installed and running on their personal computer prior to the start of the class.

 

Who Should Attend?

 

This course is essential for DevOps Engineers, Postgres DBAs, and Systems Architects responsible for scaling, securing, or ensuring the high availability of Postgres production environments.

Master Pgpool-II—The key to building an unstoppable Postgres cluster. Enroll Today!

 

This course is offered in English and Spanish

For pricing and scheduling, please reachout to us at support@postgressolutions.com