Book Review — Instant PostgreSQL Backup and Restore How-to

I recently was fortunate to receive an ePub copy of “Instant PostgreSQL Backup and Restore How-to” from Packt Publishing for review. The topic obviously high on the list of skills any DBA must master. And given my still relatively recent foray into the realm of Postgres from Oracle, quickly getting up to speed on this is certainly a top priority for me.

From the outset, the book does not disappoint. Like any of you, I'm sure, I have a ridiculous number of tech books in my library. This, however, is my first publication from Packt. And I must say, I definitely enjoyed the short, directly to the point format. I'll likely be taking a look at other Packt titles if for no other reason than that.

Author Shaun Thomas had my immediate gratitude and admiration for providing an extremely quick, concise method for creating a reasonably large database to work through the methods presented. Again, as a relative newcomer to Postgres, with no Postgres instances in use at my organization, I found this invaluable.

And without any delay, you will roll right into the basics of backup of your databases. Full, partial, data only, schema info, specific tables... it's all there within the first few pages. In only a few minutes after beginning the book, you have enough information to have a backup of your database underway. Well done.

At the time of this writing, I have not yet made it to the following chapters on more advanced topics. But there is no question I'm looking forward to them given my experience so far.

(And I would add that backup and recovery of Postgres seems immensely easier that what I've experienced with Oracle. The command line tools are outstanding, from what I've seen so far. And as usual, they a much more "Unix-like", for lack of a better term, than what Oracle provides. That is a huge plus, in my opinion.)

I'd highly recommend this book. Its concise coverage of the backup and recovery of Postgres will have you up and running in no time. And who has time to waste when it comes to developing proficiency in anything data related these days.

Big Cats & The Elephant

In my experience, it has been an exceedingly rare thing to be able to get a database up and running quickly and easily for the sole purpose of having one to play with.  Oracle is a beast to install, for example, and SQL Server loves to run you through endless wizards.  MongoDB was the notable exception to this, and this was therefore of the reasons that I first jumped on board so eagerly to give it a test drive.

But even the simplicity of downloading the MongoDB binaries for OS X and starting it up with the right flags on the command line falls short of the mind-numbingly incredible ease with which you can get PostgreSQL up and running on a Mac with Postgres.app!

What were are talking about here is

• download
• unzip
• move to Applications
• run it

No joke.  You now have PostgreSQL running on the default port of 5432.

The documentation will open by default.  I suggest adding the path to the Postgres binaries to your own PATH, and this information is provided in brief doc that will open.  This is not absolutely necessary, however, as one can start the psql shell (analogous to SQL*Plus) from the menu that will appear if you click on the small elephant that will appear in your menu bar.

While I plan to go through the steps to get Postgres started on CentOS Linux at a later date for more complex, multiserver configurations; I can't overstate how highly I recommend this for its elegant simplicity.  Many, MANY thanks to Mattt Thompson and Heroku Postgres for making this available to the masses!

Herding Elephants

It may be readily apparent that from its outset, this blog has lacked focus. And as it has sputtered along and been neglected at times, I've wondered where to take it and what I should focus upon. And I think that question has now been answered.

Over the past few months I've become quite enamored of the PostgreSQL database. Obsessed you might say. So much so, in fact, that I've decided to make it the new focal point of my career after many years as an Oracle DBA. I think the future for Postgres is very bright. It's the only open source database that I would put in the same league as Oracle, and also has many features that would make even a lover of the non-relational, NoSQL movement a happy camper. (And with the ridiculous pricing structure for Oracle these days...)

My hope is that by making a commitment to myself to use this blog as a record of my successes and failures in attempting to transition (translate?) my knowledge of the Oracle database into some sort of mastery of PostgreSQL someday, I will not only be motivating myself to keep the process rolling along, but also leaving a trail of breadcrumbs for other Oracle DBAs who find themselves among the elephants.

Google+ As Your Central Hub

The Need For A Central Hub

You might ask yourself, why do I need a primary presence online?  Can't I just use tools like HootSuite, Streamified, etc. to post to multiple sites/streams?

Absolutely, you could.  And tools like these will remain invaluable even if you do centralize to Google+. But what you will likely find (if you have not experienced it already) is that as the frequency of your interactions online increases, and you become more prolific in posting your own original material or sharing other's is the following:

1. It becomes increasingly difficult to adequately maintain a presence on all of these platforms.
   
   This is especially true when it comes to interacting with your followers, peers, individuals and organizations you follow, and so on.  And without a great deal of discipline, you will find yourself going through periods (of increasing frequency and length) in which you are completely neglecting your online persona.
    
2. Maintaining any kind of synchronization of your "digital life" (contact info, calendars, files, etc.) becomes extremely tedious and time consuming.
   
   Did I get that event I signed up for on LinkedIn into my calendar?  What was the contact info for that person I interacted with on Twitter?  How will I share your presentation from last night's user group meeting?  What can I do to simplify keeping my calendar and guest list in sync for a live, online event I want to plan?
    
3. It's not unlikely you'll eventually need one or more separate page "entities" representing a group, product, etc..
   
   If you are managing a user group, for example, it's best to have a separate page of some sort for this purpose.  Direct integration between this page and the professional persona account you use regularly use becomes invaluable when you are trying to remain organized and on top of everything!

The next post in this series will delve into the why Google+ is your first, best option to serve as your central hub when stacked up feature for feature with several major social platforms.  Stop by again soon!

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Google+ For Your Professional Persona

A few weeks ago, I made a brief post on Google+ that attempted to summarize how and why I've seen my G+ usage steadily increasing over the last few months.  That trend has continued to a point where I have found myself in not a few conversations not regarding G+ as a replacement for my personal Facebook account (even though it has been), but rather focused upon the use of Google+ as a central hub and social glue for my professional persona online.

We all have our motivations for what is common referred to as "building your personal brand" online.  And by and large, there are many different paths you can take in this pursuit.  Invariably, however, we all seem to have all or some combination of the following in common:

• Twitter feed
• LinkedIn profile
• professional blog
• Facebook profile
• and ever more increasingly... a Google+ account

And this presents a challenge.  What will you use as your primary presence?

What follows will be a series of blog posts on using Google+ as the hub for your professional life online.  To get started, in my next post I'll be focusing on why utilizing G+ as your hub to leverage the power of the entire Google ecosystem is the most practical answer to this question.

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