Ubuntu Manpage: pgbouncer - lightweight connection pooler for PostgreSQL

NAME

       pgbouncer - lightweight connection pooler for PostgreSQL

SYNOPSIS

       pgbouncer [-d][-R][-v][-u user] <pgbouncer.ini>
       pgbouncer -V|-h

       On Windows computers, the options are:

       pgbouncer.exe [-v][-u user] <pgbouncer.ini>
       pgbouncer.exe -V|-h

       Additional options for setting up a Windows service:

       pgbouncer.exe --regservice   <pgbouncer.ini>
       pgbouncer.exe --unregservice <pgbouncer.ini>

DESCRIPTION

pgbouncer is a PostgreSQL connection pooler. Any target application can be connected to
pgbouncer as if it were a PostgreSQL server, and pgbouncer will create a connection to the
actual server, or it will reuse one of its existing connections.

The aim of pgbouncer is to lower the performance impact of opening new connections to
PostgreSQL.

In order not to compromise transaction semantics for connection pooling, pgbouncer
supports several types of pooling when rotating connections:

Session pooling
Most polite method. When client connects, a server connection will be assigned to
it for the whole duration the client stays connected. When the client disconnects,
the server connection will be put back into the pool. This is the default method.

Transaction pooling
A server connection is assigned to client only during a transaction. When
PgBouncer notices that transaction is over, the server connection will be put back
into the pool.

Statement pooling
Most aggressive method. The server connection will be put back into pool
immediately after a query completes. Multi-statement transactions are disallowed in
this mode as they would break.

The administration interface of pgbouncer consists of some new SHOW commands available
when connected to a special 'virtual' database pgbouncer.

QUICK-START

       Basic setup and usage as following.

       1. Create a pgbouncer.ini file.  Details in pgbouncer(5).  Simple example:

          [databases]
          template1 = host=127.0.0.1 port=5432 dbname=template1

          [pgbouncer]
          listen_port = 6543
          listen_addr = 127.0.0.1
          auth_type = md5
          auth_file = users.txt
          logfile = pgbouncer.log
          pidfile = pgbouncer.pid
          admin_users = someuser

       2. Create users.txt file that contains users allowed in:

          "someuser" "same_password_as_in_server"

       3. Launch pgbouncer:

          $ pgbouncer -d pgbouncer.ini

       4. Have your application (or the psql client) connect to pgbouncer instead of directly  to
          PostgreSQL server:

          $ psql -p 6543 -U someuser template1

       5. Manage  pgbouncer  by  connecting  to the special administration database pgbouncer and
          issuing show help; to begin:

          $ psql -p 6543 -U someuser pgbouncer
          pgbouncer=# show help;
          NOTICE:  Console usage
          DETAIL:
            SHOW [HELP|CONFIG|DATABASES|FDS|POOLS|CLIENTS|SERVERS|SOCKETS|LISTS|VERSION]
            SET key = arg
            RELOAD
            PAUSE
            SUSPEND
            RESUME
            SHUTDOWN

       6. If you made changes to the pgbouncer.ini file, you can reload it with:

          pgbouncer=# RELOAD;

COMMAND LINE SWITCHES

       -d     Run in background. Without it the process will run in foreground.  Note:  Does  not
              work on Windows, pgbouncer need to run as service there.

       -R     Do  an  online  restart.  That means connecting to the running process, loading the
              open sockets from it, and then using them.  If there is  no  active  process,  boot
              normally.   Note: Works only if OS supports Unix sockets and the unix_socket_dir is
              not disabled in config.  Does not work on Windows machines.  Does not work with TLS
              connections, they are dropped.

       -u user
              Switch to the given user on startup.

       -v     Increase verbosity.  Can be used multiple times.

       -q     Be quiet - do not log to stdout.  Note this does not affect logging verbosity, only
              that stdout is not to be used.  For use in init.d scripts.

       -V     Show version.

       -h     Show short help.

       --regservice
              Win32: Register pgbouncer to run  as  Windows  service.   The  service_name  config
              parameter value is used as name to register under.

       --unregservice
              Win32: Unregister Windows service.

ADMIN CONSOLE

The console is available by connecting as normal to the database pgbouncer:

$ psql -p 6543 pgbouncer

Only users listed in configuration parameters admin_users or stats_users are allowed to
login to the console. (Except when auth_mode=any, then any user is allowed in as a
stats_user.)

Additionally, the username pgbouncer is allowed to log in without password, if the login
comes via Unix socket and the client has same Unix user uid as the running process.

Show commands
The SHOW commands output information. Each command is described below.

SHOW STATS;
Shows statistics.

database
Statistics are presented per database.

total_requests
Total number of SQL requests pooled by pgbouncer.

total_received
Total volume in bytes of network traffic received by pgbouncer.

total_sent
Total volume in bytes of network traffic sent by pgbouncer.

total_query_time
Total number of microseconds spent by pgbouncer when actively connected to
PostgreSQL.

avg_req
Average requests per second in last stat period.

avg_recv
Average received (from clients) bytes per second.

avg_sent
Average sent (to clients) bytes per second.

avg_query
Average query duration in microseconds.

SHOW SERVERS;
type S, for server.

user Username pgbouncer uses to connect to server.

database
Database name.

state State of the pgbouncer server connection, one of active, used or idle.

addr IP address of PostgreSQL server.

port Port of PostgreSQL server.

local_addr
Connection start address on local machine.

local_port
Connection start port on local machine.

connect_time
When the connection was made.

request_time
When last request was issued.

ptr Address of internal object for this connection. Used as unique ID.

link Address of client connection the server is paired with.

remote_pid
Pid of backend server process. In case connection is made over unix socket and OS
supports getting process ID info, it's OS pid. Otherwise it's extracted from
cancel packet server sent, which should be PID in case server is Postgres, but it's
a random number in case server it another PgBouncer.

SHOW CLIENTS;
type C, for client.

user Client connected user.

database
Database name.

state State of the client connection, one of active, used, waiting or idle.

addr IP address of client.

port Port client is connected to.

local_addr
Connection end address on local machine.

local_port
Connection end port on local machine.

connect_time
Timestamp of connect time.

request_time
Timestamp of latest client request.

ptr Address of internal object for this connection. Used as unique ID.

link Address of server connection the client is paired with.

remote_pid
Process ID, in case client connects over UNIX socket and OS supports getting it.

SHOW POOLS;
A new pool entry is made for each couple of (database, user).

database
Database name.

user User name.

cl_active
Client connections that are linked to server connection and can process queries.

cl_waiting
Client connections have sent queries but have not yet got a server connection.

sv_active
Server connections that linked to client.

sv_idle
Server connections that unused and immediately usable for client queries.

sv_used
Server connections that have been idle more than server_check_delay, so they needs
server_check_query to run on it before it can be used.

sv_tested
Server connections that are currently running either server_reset_query or
server_check_query.

sv_login
Server connections currently in logging in process.

maxwait
How long the first (oldest) client in queue has waited, in seconds. If this starts
increasing, then the current pool of servers does not handle requests quick enough.
Reason may be either overloaded server or just too small of a pool_size setting.

pool_mode
The pooling mode in use.

SHOW LISTS;
Show following internal information, in columns (not rows):

databases
Count of databases.

users Count of users.

pools Count of pools.

free_clients
Count of free clients.

used_clients
Count of used clients.

login_clients
Count of clients in login state.

free_servers
Count of free servers.

used_servers
Count of used servers.

SHOW USERS;
name The user name

pool_mode
The user's override pool_mode, or NULL if the default will be used instead.

SHOW DATABASES;
name Name of configured database entry.

host Host pgbouncer connects to.

port Port pgbouncer connects to.

database
Actual database name pgbouncer connects to.

force_user
When user is part of the connection string, the connection between pgbouncer and
PostgreSQL is forced to the given user, whatever the client user.

pool_size
Maximum number of server connections.

pool_mode
The database's override pool_mode, or NULL if the default will be used instead.

SHOW FDS;
Internal command - shows list of fds in use with internal state attached to them.

When the connected user has username "pgbouncer", connects through Unix socket and has
same UID as running process, the actual fds are passed over the connection. This
mechanism is used to do an online restart. Note: This does not work on Windows machines.

This command also blocks internal event loop, so it should not be used while PgBouncer is
in use.

fd File descriptor numeric value.

task One of pooler, client or server.

user User of the connection using the FD.

database
Database of the connection using the FD.

addr IP address of the connection using the FD, unix if a unix socket is used.

port Port used by the connection using the FD.

cancel Cancel key for this connection.

link fd for corresponding server/client. NULL if idle.

SHOW CONFIG;
Show the current configuration settings, one per row, with following columns:

key Configuration variable name

value Configuration value

changeable
Either yes or no, shows if the variable can be changed while running. If no, the
variable can be changed only boot-time.

SHOW DNS_HOSTS;
Show hostnames in DNS cache.

hostname
Host name.

ttl How meny seconds until next lookup.

addrs Comma separated list of addresses.

SHOW DNS_ZONES
Show DNS zones in cache.

zonename
Zone name.

serial Current serial.

count Hostnames belonging to this zone.

Process controlling commands
PAUSE [db];
PgBouncer tries to disconnect from all servers, first waiting for all queries to complete.
The command will not return before all queries are finished. To be used at the time of
database restart.

If database name is given, only that database will be paused.

DISABLE db;
Reject all new client connections on the given database.

ENABLE db;
Allow new client connections after a previous DISABLE command.

KILL db;
Immediately drop all client and server connections on given database.

SUSPEND;
All socket buffers are flushed and PgBouncer stops listening for data on them. The
command will not return before all buffers are empty. To be used at the time of PgBouncer
online reboot.

RESUME [db];
Resume work from previous PAUSE or SUSPEND command.

SHUTDOWN;
The PgBouncer process will exit.

RELOAD;
The PgBouncer process will reload its configuration file and update changeable settings.

Signals
SIGHUP Reload config. Same as issuing command RELOAD; on console.

SIGINT Safe shutdown. Same as issuing PAUSE; and SHUTDOWN; on console.

SIGTERM
Immediate shutdown. Same as issuing SHUTDOWN; on console.

Libevent settings
From libevent docs:

It is possible to disable support for epoll, kqueue, devpoll, poll
or select by setting the environment variable EVENT_NOEPOLL,
EVENT_NOKQUEUE, EVENT_NODEVPOLL, EVENT_NOPOLL or EVENT_NOSELECT,
respectively.

By setting the environment variable EVENT_SHOW_METHOD, libevent
displays the kernel notification method that it uses.

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

QUICK-START

COMMAND LINE SWITCHES

ADMIN CONSOLE

SEE ALSO