Defining a server

Use the Create - Server dialog to describe a new server connection, bind the server to a PEM agent, and display the server to the PEM tree control.

Create Server dialog - General tab

Use the fields on the General tab to describe the general properties of the server:

• Use the Name field to specify a user-friendly name for the server. The name specified will identify the server in the PEM client tree control.

• You can use groups to organize your servers and agents in the PEM client tree control. Using groups can help you manage large numbers of servers more easily. For example, you may want to have a production group, a test group, or LAN specific groups. Use the Group drop-down listbox to select the group in which the new server will be displayed.

• Use the Team field to specify a PostgreSQL role name. Only PEM users who are members of this role, who created the server initially, or have superuser privileges on the PEM server will see this server when they logon to PEM. If this field is left blank, by default all PEM users will see the server. You can use the ‘show_objects_with_no_team’ parameter in the Server Configuration dialog to change the behaviour. If ‘show_objects_with_no_team’ is set to false, the server with no team will not be visible to all other users.

• Use the Background color selector to select the color that will be displayed in the PEM tree control behind database objects that are stored on the server.

• Use the Foreground color selector to select the font color of labels in the PEM tree control for objects stored on the server.

• Check the box next to Connect now? to instruct PEM to attempt a connection to the database server when you click the Save button on the Create - Server dialog. Leave the Connect now? checkbox unchecked if you do not want to establish a connection to the server immediately. If you do not select the Connect now? option, the connection parameters are not validated until you attempt a connection.

• Provide notes about the server in the Comments field.

Create Server dialog - Connection tab

Use fields on the Connection tab to specify connection details for the server:

• Specify the IP address of the server host, or the fully qualified domain name in the Host name/address field. On Unix based systems, the address field may be left blank to use the default PostgreSQL Unix Domain Socket on the local machine, or may be set to an alternate path containing a PostgreSQL socket. If you enter a path, the path must begin with a “/”.

• Specify the port number of the host in the Port field.

• Use the Maintenance database field to specify the name of the initial database that PEM will connect to, and that will contain the pgAgent schema and admin pack objects if installed (both are optional). If you are planning to monitor PGD via PEM, then specify the PGD-enabled database name in this field. On an Advanced Server database, the maintenance database is named ‘edb’. PostgreSQL 8.1 and above, the maintenance DB for PostgreSQL is named ‘postgres’; on earlier versions, template1 is often used, though it is preferable to create a postgres database for this purpose to avoid cluttering the template database.

• Set the Kerberos Authentication to Yes to use the Kerberos Authentication for a monitored server. By default, the monitored server uses the same authentication method as the PEM Server. If the monitored server does not want to use Kerberos Authentication then ALLOW_DATABASE_CONNECTION_WITHOUT_KERBEROS must be set to TRUE in config_local.py file.

• Specify the name that will be used when authenticating with the server in the Username field. If the Kerberos Authentication method is used then the username field will be populated automatically and will be disabled.

• Provide the password associated with the specified user in the Password field. If the Kerberos Authentication method is used then this field is disabled.

• Check the box next to Save password? to instruct the PEM server to save the password in encrypted format on the PEM server backend database server for later reuse. Password will be stored per server per user basis, hence - it won’t be shared with other team members. To remove a password, disconnect from the server, click on the ‘Clear Saved Password’ menu item under Object/Context menu of the database server.

• Use the Role field to specify the name of the role that is assigned the privileges that the client should use after connecting to the server. This allows you to connect as one role, and then assume the permissions of another role when the connection is established (the one you specified in this field). The connecting role must be a member of the role specified.

Create Server dialog - SSL tab

Use the fields on the SSL tab to configure SSL.

• Use the drop-down list box in the SSL mode field to select the type of SSL connection the server should use. For more information about using SSL encryption, see Section 33.18 of the Postgres documentation.

You can use the platform-specific File manager dialog to upload files that support SSL encryption to the server. To access the File manager dialog, click the icon that is located to the right of each of the following fields.

• Use the Client certificate field to specify the file containing the client SSL certificate. This file will replace the default <STORAGE_DIR>/<USERNAME>/.postgresql/postgresql.crt. This parameter is ignored if an SSL connection is not made.

• Use the Client certificate key field to specify the file containing the secret key used for the client certificate. This file will replace the default <STORAGE_DIR>/<USERNAME>/.postgresql/postgresql.key if PEM is installed in Web mode. This parameter is ignored if an SSL connection is not made.

• Use the Root certificate field to specify the file containing the SSL certificate authority. This file will replace the default ~/.postgresql/root.crt. This parameter is ignored if an SSL connection is not made.

• Use the Certificate revocation list field to specify the file containing the SSL certificate revocation list. This list will replace the default list, found in ~/.postgresql/root.crl. This parameter is ignored if an SSL connection is not made.

• When SSL compression? is set to True, data sent over SSL connections will be compressed. The default value is False (compression is disabled). This parameter is ignored if an SSL connection is not made.

WARNING: The certificates, private keys, and the revocation list are stored in the per-user file storage area on the server, which is owned by the user account under which the PEM server process is run. This means that administrators of the server may be able to access those files; appropriate caution should be taken before choosing to use this feature.

Create Server dialog - SSH Tunnel tab

Use the fields on the SSH Tunnel tab to configure SSH Tunneling. You can use a tunnel to connect a database server (through an intermediary proxy host) to a server that resides on a network to which the client may not be able to connect directly.

• Set Use SSH tunneling to Yes to specify that PEM should use an SSH tunnel when connecting to the specified server.

• Specify the name or IP address of the SSH host (through which client connections will be forwarded) in the Tunnel host field.

• Specify the port of the SSH host (through which client connections will be forwarded) in the Tunnel port field.

• Specify the name of a user with login privileges for the SSH host in the Username field.

• Specify the type of authentication that will be used when connecting to the SSH host in the Authentication field.

  • Select Password to specify that PEM will use a password for authentication to the SSH host. This is the default.

  • Select Identity file to specify that PEM will use a private key file when connecting.

• If the SSH host is expecting a private key file for authentication, use the Identity file field to specify the location of the key file.

• If the SSH host is expecting a password, use the Password field to specify the password, or if an identity file is being used, the passphrase.

Create Server dialog - Advanced tab

Use fields on the Advanced tab to specify details that are used to manage the server:

• Specify the IP address of the server host in the Host Address field.

• Use the DB restriction field to specify a SQL restriction that will be used against the pg_database table to limit the databases displayed in the tree control. For example, you might enter: 'live_db', 'test_db' to instruct the PEM browser to display only the live_db and test_db databases.

• Use the Password file field to specify the location of a password file (.pgpass). The .pgpass file allows a user to login without providing a password when they connect, and it must be present on the PEM server. For more information, see Section 33.15 of the Postgres documentation. Please note: Use of a password file is only supported when PEM is using libpq v10.0 or later to connect to the server.

• Use the Service ID field to specify parameters to control the database service process. For servers that are stored in the Enterprise Manager directory, enter the service ID. On Windows machines, this is the identifier for the Windows service. On *nix machines, this is the name of the init script used to start the server in /etc/init.d. An example of an ID on all platforms is postgresql-9.0. For local servers, the setting is operating system dependent:

  • If the PEM client is running on a Windows machine, it can control the postmaster service if you have enough access rights. Enter the name of the service. In case of a remote server, it must be prepended by the machine name (e.g. PSE1\pgsql-8.0). PEM will automatically discover services running on your local machine.

  • If the PEM client is running on a Unix machine, it can control processes running on the local machine if you have enough access rights. Enter a full path and needed options to access the pg_ctl program. When executing service control functions, PEM will append status/start/stop keywords to this. For example: sudo /usr/local/pgsql/bin/pg_ctl -D /data/pgsql

• If the server is a member of a Failover Manager cluster, you can use PEM to monitor the health of the cluster and to replace the primary node if necessary. To enable PEM to monitor Failover Manager, use the EFM cluster name field to specify the cluster name. The cluster name is the prefix of the name of the Failover Manager cluster properties file. For example, if the cluster properties file is named efm.properties, the cluster name is efm.

• If you are using PEM to monitor the status of a Failover Manager cluster, use the EFM installation path field to specify the location of the Failover Manager binary file. By default, the Failover Manager binary file is installed in /usr/efm-2.x/bin, where x specifies the Failover Manager version.

Create Server dialog - PEM Agent tab

Use fields on the PEM Agent tab to specify connection details for the PEM agent:

On Connection Parameters tab

• Specify Yes in the Remote monitoring? field to indicate that the PEM agent does not reside on the same host as the monitored server. When remote monitoring is enabled, agent level statistics for the monitored server will not be available for custom charts and dashboards, and the remote server will not be accessible by some PEM utilities (such as Audit Manager, Capacity Manager, Log Manager, Postgres Expert and Tuning Wizard).

• Use the drop-down listbox to the right of the Bound agent label to select a PEM agent . One agent can monitor multiple Postgres servers.

• Enter the IP address or socket path that the agent should use when connecting to the database server in the Host field. By default, the agent will use the host address shown on the General tab. On a Unix server, you may wish to specify a socket path, e.g. /tmp.

• Enter the Port number that the agent will use when connecting to the server. By default, the agent will use the port defined on the Properties tab.

• Use the drop-down listbox in the SSL field to specify an SSL operational mode; select from require, prefer, allow, disable, verify-ca or verify-full.

Mode	Description:
require	To require SSL encryption for transactions between the server and the agent.
prefer	To use SSL encryption between the server and the agent if SSL encryption is available.
allow	To allow the connection to use SSL if required by the server.
disable	To disable SSL encryption between the agent and the server.
verify-ca	To require SSL encryption, and to require the server to authenticate using a certificate registered by a certificate authority.
verify-full	To require SSL encryption, and to require the server to authenticate using a certificate registered by a trusted certificate authority.

For information about using SSL encryption, see Section 31.17 of the Postgres documentation.

• Use the Database field to specify the name of the Postgres database to which the agent will initially connect. If you are registering a PGD Node then specify the PGD-enabled database name in this field.

• Specify the name of the user that agent should use when connecting to the server in the User name field. Note that if the specified user is not a database superuser, then some of the features will not work as expected. If you are using Postgres version 10 or above, you can use the pg_monitor role to grant the required privileges to a non-superuser. For information about pg_monitor role, see Default Roles. If you are using Kerberos Authentication method then specify the user having bdr_monitor or bdr_superuser role in this field.

• Specify the password that the agent should use when connecting to the server in the Password field, and verify it by typing it again in the Confirm password field. If you do not specify a password, you will need to configure the authentication for the agent manually; you can use a .pgpass file for example.

Create Server dialog - PEM Agent Advanced tab

On Advanced tab

• Specify Yes in the Allow takeover? field to specify that another agent may be signaled (for example, by a fencing script) to monitor the server. This feature allows an agent to take responsibility for the monitoring of the database server if, for example, the server is part of a high availability failover process.

• Use the + sign to add the database you want to exclude from the PEM Monitoring. You cannot exclude the database mentioned on the Connection Parameters tab of the PEM Agent tab.

Note

The database-level probes do not execute for excluded databases, but the server-level probes may collect the database statistics.

If you experience connection problems, please visit the connection problems page.

To view the properties of a server, right-click on the server name in the PEM client tree control, and select the Properties... option from the context menu. To modify a server’s properties, disconnect from the server before opening the Properties dialog.