The pglogical 2 extension provides logical streaming replication for PostgreSQL, using a publish/subscribe model. It is based on technology developed as part of the BDR project (http://2ndquadrant.com/BDR).
While pglogical is actively maintained, EnterpriseDB (which acquired 2ndQuadrant in 2020) focuses new feature development on a descendant of pglogical: Postgres Distributed. Postgres Distributed introduced new features such as DDL replication, write leaders, parallel apply, and more.
We use the following terms to describe data streams between nodes, deliberately reused from the earlier Slony technology:
- Nodes - PostgreSQL database instances
- Providers and Subscribers - roles taken by Nodes
- Replication Set - a collection of tables
pglogical is utilising the latest in-core features, so we have these version restrictions:
- Provider & subscriber nodes must run PostgreSQL 9.4
- PostgreSQL 9.5 is required for replication origin filtering and conflict detection
- Additionally, subscriber can be Postgres-XL 9.5
Use cases supported are:
- Upgrades between major versions (given the above restrictions)
- Full database replication
- Selective replication of sets of tables using replication sets
- Selective replication of table rows at either publisher or subscriber side (row_filter)
- Selective replication of table columns at publisher side
- Data gather/merge from multiple upstream servers
Architectural details:
- pglogical works on a per-database level, not whole server level like physical streaming replication
- One Provider may feed multiple Subscribers without incurring additional disk write overhead
- One Subscriber can merge changes from several origins and detect conflict between changes with automatic and configurable conflict resolution (some, but not all aspects required for multi-master).
- Cascading replication is implemented in the form of changeset forwarding.
To use pglogical the provider and subscriber must be running PostgreSQL 9.4 or newer.
The pglogical
extension must be installed on both provider and subscriber.
You must CREATE EXTENSION pglogical
on both.
Tables on the provider and subscriber must have the same names and be in the same schema. Future revisions may add mapping features.
Tables on the provider and subscriber must have the same columns, with the same
data types in each column. CHECK
constraints, NOT NULL
constraints, etc., must
be the same or weaker (more permissive) on the subscriber than the provider.
Tables must have the same PRIMARY KEY
s. It is not recommended to add additional
UNIQUE
constraints other than the PRIMARY KEY
(see below).
Some additional requirements are covered in Limitations and Restrictions.
pglogical is available as RPMs via yum for Fedora, CentOS, & RHEL, and as DEBs via apt for Debian and Ubuntu, or as source code here. Please see below for instructions on installing from source.
The instructions below are valid for Red Hat family of operating systems (RHEL, CentOS, Fedora). Pre-Requisites
These RPMs all require the PGDG PostgreSQL releases from http://yum.postgresql.org/. You cannot use them with stock PostgreSQL releases included in Fedora and RHEL. If you don’t have PostgreSQL already:
- Install the appropriate PGDG repo rpm from http://yum.postgresql.org/repopackages.php
- Install PostgreSQL
- PostgreSQL 9.5:
yum install postgresql95-server postgresql95-contrib
- PostgreSQL 9.6:
yum install postgresql96-server postgresql96-contrib
- PostgreSQL 10:
yum install postgresql10-server postgresql10-contrib
- PostgreSQL 11:
yum install postgresql11-server postgresql11-contrib
- PostgreSQL 12:
yum install postgresql12-server postgresql12-contrib
- PostgreSQL 13:
yum install postgresql13-server postgresql13-contrib
- PostgreSQL 14:
yum install postgresql14-server postgresql14-contrib
- PostgreSQL 15:
yum install postgresql15-server postgresql15-contrib
- PostgreSQL 16:
yum install postgresql16-server postgresql16-contrib
- PostgreSQL 17:
yum install postgresql17-server postgresql17-contrib
- PostgreSQL 9.5:
You can proceed to install pglogical for your PostgreSQL version:
- PostgreSQL 9.5:
yum install pglogical_95
- PostgreSQL 9.6:
yum install pglogical_96
- PostgreSQL 10:
yum install pglogical_10
- PostgreSQL 11:
yum install pglogical_11
- PostgreSQL 12:
yum install pglogical_12
- PostgreSQL 13:
yum install pglogical_13
- PostgreSQL 14:
yum install pglogical_14
- PostgreSQL 15:
yum install pglogical_15
- PostgreSQL 16:
yum install pglogical_16
- PostgreSQL 17:
yum install pglogical_17
The instructions below are valid for Debian and all Linux flavors based on Debian (e.g. Ubuntu).
- Add the https://apt.postgresql.org/ repository. See the site for instructions.
- Install PostgreSQL
- PostgreSQL 9.5:
sudo apt-get install postgresql-9.5
- PostgreSQL 9.6:
sudo apt-get install postgresql-9.6
- PostgreSQL 10:
sudo apt-get install postgresql-10
- PostgreSQL 11:
sudo apt-get install postgresql-11
- PostgreSQL 12:
sudo apt-get install postgresql-12
- PostgreSQL 13:
sudo apt-get install postgresql-13
- PostgreSQL 14:
sudo apt-get install postgresql-14
- PostgreSQL 15:
sudo apt-get install postgresql-15
- PostgreSQL 16:
sudo apt-get install postgresql-16
- PostgreSQL 17:
sudo apt-get install postgresql-17
- PostgreSQL 9.5:
Once pre-requisites are complete, installing pglogical is simply a matter of executing the following for your version of PostgreSQL:
- PostgreSQL 9.5:
sudo apt-get install postgresql-9.5-pglogical
- PostgreSQL 9.6:
sudo apt-get install postgresql-9.6-pglogical
- PostgreSQL 10:
sudo apt-get install postgresql-10-pglogical
- PostgreSQL 11:
sudo apt-get install postgresql-11-pglogical
- PostgreSQL 12:
sudo apt-get install postgresql-12-pglogical
- PostgreSQL 13:
sudo apt-get install postgresql-13-pglogical
- PostgreSQL 14:
sudo apt-get install postgresql-14-pglogical
- PostgreSQL 15:
sudo apt-get install postgresql-15-pglogical
- PostgreSQL 16:
sudo apt-get install postgresql-16-pglogical
- PostgreSQL 17:
sudo apt-get install postgresql-17-pglogical
Source code installs are the same as for any other PostgreSQL extension built using PGXS.
Make sure the directory containing pg_config
from the PostgreSQL release is
listed in your PATH
environment variable. You might have to install a -dev
or -devel
package for your PostgreSQL release from your package manager if
you don't have pg_config
.
Then run make
to compile, and make install
to
install. You might need to use sudo
for the install step.
e.g. for a typical Fedora or RHEL 9 install, assuming you're using the yum.postgresql.org packages for PostgreSQL:
sudo dnf install postgresql17-devel
PATH=/usr/pgsql-17/bin:$PATH make clean all
sudo PATH=/usr/pgsql-17/bin:$PATH make install
This section describes basic usage of the pglogical replication extension.
First the PostgreSQL server has to be properly configured to support logical decoding:
wal_level = 'logical'
max_worker_processes = 10 # one per database needed on provider node
# one per node needed on subscriber node
max_replication_slots = 10 # one per node needed on provider node
max_wal_senders = 10 # one per node needed on provider node
shared_preload_libraries = 'pglogical'
If you are using PostgreSQL 9.5 (this won't work on 9.4) and want to handle conflict resolution with last/first update wins (see Conflicts), you can add this additional option to postgresql.conf:
track_commit_timestamp = on # needed for last/first update wins conflict resolution
# property available in PostgreSQL 9.5
pg_hba.conf
has to allow logical replication connections from
localhost. Up until PostgreSQL 9.6, logical replication connections
are managed using the replication
keyword in pg_hba.conf
. In
PostgreSQL 10 and later, logical replication connections are treated
by pg_hba.conf
as regular connections to the provider database.
Next the pglogical
extension has to be installed on all nodes:
CREATE EXTENSION pglogical;
If using PostgreSQL 9.4, then the pglogical_origin
extension
also has to be installed on that node:
CREATE EXTENSION pglogical_origin;
Now create the provider node:
SELECT pglogical.create_node(
node_name := 'provider1',
dsn := 'host=providerhost port=5432 dbname=db'
);
Add all tables in public
schema to the default
replication set.
SELECT pglogical.replication_set_add_all_tables('default', ARRAY['public']);
Optionally you can also create additional replication sets and add tables to them (see Replication sets).
It's usually better to create replication sets before subscribing so that all tables are synchronized during initial replication setup in a single initial transaction. However, users of bigger databases may instead wish to create them incrementally for better control.
Once the provider node is setup, subscribers can be subscribed to it. First the subscriber node must be created:
SELECT pglogical.create_node(
node_name := 'subscriber1',
dsn := 'host=thishost port=5432 dbname=db'
);
And finally on the subscriber node you can create the subscription which will start synchronization and replication process in the background:
SELECT pglogical.create_subscription(
subscription_name := 'subscription1',
provider_dsn := 'host=providerhost port=5432 dbname=db'
);
SELECT pglogical.wait_for_subscription_sync_complete('subscription1');
In addition to the SQL-level node and subscription creation, pglogical also
supports creating a subscriber by cloning the provider with pg_basebackup
and
starting it up as a pglogical subscriber. This is done with the
pglogical_create_subscriber
tool; see the --help
output.
Unlike pglogical.create_subscription
's data sync options, this clone ignores
replication sets and copies all tables on all databases. However, it's often
much faster, especially over high-bandwidth links.
Nodes can be added and removed dynamically using the SQL interfaces.
-
pglogical.create_node(node_name name, dsn text)
Creates a node.Parameters:
node_name
- name of the new node, only one node is allowed per databasedsn
- connection string to the node, for nodes that are supposed to be providers, this should be reachable from outside
-
pglogical.drop_node(node_name name, ifexists bool)
Drops the pglogical node.Parameters:
node_name
- name of an existing nodeifexists
- if true, error is not thrown when subscription does not exist, default is false
-
pglogical.alter_node_add_interface(node_name name, interface_name name, dsn text)
Adds additional interface to a node.When node is created, the interface for it is also created with the
dsn
specified in thecreate_node
and with the same name as the node. This interface allows adding alternative interfaces with different connection strings to an existing node.Parameters:
node_name
- name of an existing nodeinterface_name
- name of a new interface to be addeddsn
- connection string to the node used for the new interface
-
pglogical.alter_node_drop_interface(node_name name, interface_name name)
Remove existing interface from a node.Parameters:
node_name
- name of and existing nodeinterface_name
- name of an existing interface
-
pglogical.create_subscription(subscription_name name, provider_dsn text, replication_sets text[], synchronize_structure boolean, synchronize_data boolean, forward_origins text[], apply_delay interval)
Creates a subscription from current node to the provider node. Command does not block, just initiates the action.Parameters:
subscription_name
- name of the subscription, must be uniqueprovider_dsn
- connection string to a providerreplication_sets
- array of replication sets to subscribe to, these must already exist, default is "{default,default_insert_only,ddl_sql}"synchronize_structure
- specifies if to synchronize structure from provider to the subscriber, default falsesynchronize_data
- specifies if to synchronize data from provider to the subscriber, default trueforward_origins
- array of origin names to forward, currently only supported values are empty array meaning don't forward any changes that didn't originate on provider node (this is useful for two-way replication between the nodes), or "{all}" which means replicate all changes no matter what is their origin, default is "{all}"apply_delay
- how much to delay replication, default is 0 secondsforce_text_transfer
- force the provider to replicate all columns using a text representation (which is slower, but may be used to change the type of a replicated column on the subscriber), default is false
The
subscription_name
is used asapplication_name
by the replication connection. This means that it's visible in thepg_stat_replication
monitoring view. It can also be used insynchronous_standby_names
when pglogical is used as part of synchronous replication setup.Use
pglogical.wait_for_subscription_sync_complete(sub_name)
to wait for the subscription to asynchronously start replicating and complete any needed schema and/or data sync. -
pglogical.drop_subscription(subscription_name name, ifexists bool)
Disconnects the subscription and removes it from the catalog.Parameters:
subscription_name
- name of the existing subscriptionifexists
- if true, error is not thrown when subscription does not exist, default is false
-
pglogical.alter_subscription_disable(subscription_name name, immediate bool)
Disables a subscription and disconnects it from the provider.Parameters:
subscription_name
- name of the existing subscriptionimmediate
- if true, the subscription is stopped immediately, otherwise it will be only stopped at the end of current transaction, default is false
-
pglogical.alter_subscription_enable(subscription_name name, immediate bool)
Enables disabled subscription.Parameters:
subscription_name
- name of the existing subscriptionimmediate
- if true, the subscription is started immediately, otherwise it will be only started at the end of current transaction, default is false
-
pglogical.alter_subscription_interface(subscription_name name, interface_name name)
Switch the subscription to use different interface to connect to provider node.Parameters:
subscription_name
- name of an existing subscriptioninterface_name
- name of an existing interface of the current provider node
-
pglogical.alter_subscription_synchronize(subscription_name name, truncate bool)
All unsynchronized tables in all sets are synchronized in a single operation. Tables are copied and synchronized one by one. Command does not block, just initiates the action. Usepglogical.wait_for_subscription_sync_complete
to wait for completion.Parameters:
subscription_name
- name of the existing subscriptiontruncate
- if true, tables will be truncated before copy, default false
-
pglogical.alter_subscription_resynchronize_table(subscription_name name, relation regclass)
Resynchronize one existing table. The table may not be the target of any foreign key constraints. WARNING: This function will truncate the table immediately, and only then begin synchronising it, so it will be empty while being syncedDoes not block, use
pglogical.wait_for_table_sync_complete
to wait for completion.Parameters:
subscription_name
- name of the existing subscriptionrelation
- name of existing table, optionally qualified
-
pglogical.wait_for_subscription_sync_complete(subscription_name name)
Wait for a subscription or to finish synchronization after a
pglogical.create_subscription
orpglogical.alter_subscription_synchronize
.This function waits until the subscription's initial schema/data sync, if any, are done, and until any tables pending individual resynchronisation have also finished synchronising.
For best results, run
SELECT pglogical.wait_slot_confirm_lsn(NULL, NULL)
on the provider after any replication set changes that requested resyncs, and only then callpglogical.wait_for_subscription_sync_complete
on the subscriber. -
pglogical.wait_for_table_sync_complete(subscription_name name, relation regclass)
Same as
pglogical.wait_for_subscription_sync_complete
, but waits only for the subscription's initial sync and the named table. Other tables pending resynchronisation are ignored. -
pglogical.wait_slot_confirm_lsn
SELECT pglogical.wait_slot_confirm_lsn(NULL, NULL)
Wait until all replication slots on the current node have replayed up to the xlog insert position at time of call on all providers. Returns when all slots'
confirmed_flush_lsn
passes thepg_current_wal_insert_lsn()
at time of call.Optionally may wait for only one replication slot (first argument). Optionally may wait for an arbitrary LSN passed instead of the insert lsn (second argument). Both are usually just left null.
This function is very useful to ensure all subscribers have received changes up to a certain point on the provider.
-
pglogical.show_subscription_status(subscription_name name)
Shows status and basic information about subscription.Parameters:
subscription_name
- optional name of the existing subscription, when no name was provided, the function will show status for all subscriptions on local node
-
pglogical.show_subscription_table(subscription_name name, relation regclass)
Shows synchronization status of a table.Parameters:
subscription_name
- name of the existing subscriptionrelation
- name of existing table, optionally qualified
-
pglogical.alter_subscription_add_replication_set(subscription_name name, replication_set name)
Adds one replication set into a subscriber. Does not synchronize, only activates consumption of events.Parameters:
subscription_name
- name of the existing subscriptionreplication_set
- name of replication set to add
-
pglogical.alter_subscription_remove_replication_set(subscription_name name, replication_set name)
Removes one replication set from a subscriber.Parameters:
subscription_name
- name of the existing subscriptionreplication_set
- name of replication set to remove
There is also a postgresql.conf
parameter,
pglogical.extra_connection_options
, that may be set to assign connection
options that apply to all connections made by pglogical. This can be a useful
place to set up custom keepalive options, etc.
pglogical defaults to enabling TCP keepalives to ensure that it notices
when the upstream server disappears unexpectedly. To disable them add
keepalives = 0
to pglogical.extra_connection_options
.
Replication sets provide a mechanism to control which tables in the database will be replicated and which actions on those tables will be replicated.
Each replicated set can specify individually if INSERTs
, UPDATEs
,
DELETEs
and TRUNCATEs
on the set are replicated. Every table can be in
multiple replication sets and every subscriber can subscribe to multiple
replication sets as well. The resulting set of tables and actions replicated
is the union of the sets the table is in. The tables are not replicated until
they are added into a replication set.
There are three preexisting replication sets named "default",
"default_insert_only" and "ddl_sql". The "default" replication set is defined
to replicate all changes to tables in it. The "default_insert_only" only
replicates INSERTs and is meant for tables that don't have primary key (see
Limitations section for details).
The "ddl_sql" replication set is defined to replicate schema changes specified by
pglogical.replicate_ddl_command
The following functions are provided for managing the replication sets:
-
pglogical.create_replication_set(set_name name, replicate_insert bool, replicate_update bool, replicate_delete bool, replicate_truncate bool)
This function creates a new replication set.Parameters:
set_name
- name of the set, must be uniquereplicate_insert
- specifies ifINSERT
is replicated, default truereplicate_update
- specifies ifUPDATE
is replicated, default truereplicate_delete
- specifies ifDELETE
is replicated, default truereplicate_truncate
- specifies ifTRUNCATE
is replicated, default true
-
pglogical.alter_replication_set(set_name name, replicate_inserts bool, replicate_updates bool, replicate_deletes bool, replicate_truncate bool)
This function changes the parameters of the existing replication set.Parameters:
set_name
- name of the existing replication setreplicate_insert
- specifies ifINSERT
is replicated, default truereplicate_update
- specifies ifUPDATE
is replicated, default truereplicate_delete
- specifies ifDELETE
is replicated, default truereplicate_truncate
- specifies ifTRUNCATE
is replicated, default true
-
pglogical.drop_replication_set(set_name text)
Removes the replication set.Parameters:
set_name
- name of the existing replication set
-
pglogical.replication_set_add_table(set_name name, relation regclass, synchronize_data boolean, columns text[], row_filter text)
Adds a table to replication set.Parameters:
set_name
- name of the existing replication setrelation
- name or OID of the table to be added to the setsynchronize_data
- if true, the table data is synchronized on all subscribers which are subscribed to given replication set, default falsecolumns
- list of columns to replicate. Normally when all columns should be replicated, this will be set to NULL which is the defaultrow_filter
- row filtering expression, default NULL (no filtering), see Row Filtering for more info. WARNING: Use caution when synchronizing data with a valid row filter. Usingsynchronize_data=true
with a validrow_filter
is like a one-time operation for a table. Executing it again with modifiedrow_filter
won't synchronize data to subscriber. Subscribers may need to callpglogical.alter_subscription_resynchronize_table()
to fix it.
-
pglogical.replication_set_add_all_tables(set_name name, schema_names text[], synchronize_data boolean)
Adds all tables in given schemas. Only existing tables are added, table that will be created in future will not be added automatically. For how to ensure that tables created in future are added to correct replication set, see Automatic assignment of replication sets for new tables.Parameters:
set_name
- name of the existing replication setschema_names
- array of names name of existing schemas from which tables should be addedsynchronize_data
- if true, the table data is synchronized on all subscribers which are subscribed to given replication set, default false
-
pglogical.replication_set_remove_table(set_name name, relation regclass)
Remove a table from replication set.Parameters:
set_name
- name of the existing replication setrelation
- name or OID of the table to be removed from the set
-
pglogical.replication_set_add_sequence(set_name name, relation regclass, synchronize_data boolean)
Adds a sequence to a replication set.Parameters:
set_name
- name of the existing replication setrelation
- name or OID of the sequence to be added to the setsynchronize_data
- if true, the sequence value will be synchronized immediately, default false
-
pglogical.replication_set_add_all_sequences(set_name name, schema_names text[], synchronize_data boolean)
Adds all sequences from the given schemas. Only existing sequences are added, any sequences that will be created in future will not be added automatically.Parameters:
set_name
- name of the existing replication setschema_names
- array of names name of existing schemas from which tables should be addedsynchronize_data
- if true, the sequence value will be synchronized immediately, default false
-
pglogical.replication_set_remove_sequence(set_name name, relation regclass)
Remove a sequence from a replication set.Parameters:
set_name
- name of the existing replication setrelation
- name or OID of the sequence to be removed from the set
You can view the information about which table is in which set by querying the
pglogical.tables
view.
The event trigger facility can be used for describing rules which define replication sets for newly created tables.
Example:
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION pglogical_assign_repset()
RETURNS event_trigger AS $$
DECLARE obj record;
BEGIN
FOR obj IN SELECT * FROM pg_event_trigger_ddl_commands()
LOOP
IF obj.object_type = 'table' THEN
IF obj.schema_name = 'config' THEN
PERFORM pglogical.replication_set_add_table('configuration', obj.objid);
ELSIF NOT obj.in_extension THEN
PERFORM pglogical.replication_set_add_table('default', obj.objid);
END IF;
END IF;
END LOOP;
END;
$$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;
CREATE EVENT TRIGGER pglogical_assign_repset_trg
ON ddl_command_end
WHEN TAG IN ('CREATE TABLE', 'CREATE TABLE AS')
EXECUTE PROCEDURE pglogical_assign_repset();
The above example will put all new tables created in schema config
into
replication set configuration
and all other new tables which are not created
by extensions will go to default
replication set.
-
pglogical.replicate_ddl_command(command text, replication_sets text[])
Execute locally and then send the specified command to the replication queue for execution on subscribers which are subscribed to one of the specifiedreplication_sets
.Parameters:
command
- DDL query to executereplication_sets
- array of replication sets which this command should be associated with, default "{ddl_sql}"
-
pglogical.synchronize_sequence(relation regclass)
Push sequence state to all subscribers. Unlike the subscription and table synchronization function, this function should be run on provider. It forces update of the tracked sequence state which will be consumed by all subscribers (replication set filtering still applies) once they replicate the transaction in which this function has been executed.Parameters:
relation
- name of existing sequence, optionally qualified
PGLogical allows row based filtering both on provider side and the subscriber side.
On the provider the row filtering can be done by specifying row_filter
parameter for the pglogical.replication_set_add_table
function. The
row_filter
is normal PostgreSQL expression which has the same limitations
on what's allowed as the CHECK
constraint.
Simple row_filter
would look something like row_filter := 'id > 0'
which
would ensure that only rows where values of id
column is bigger than zero
will be replicated.
It's allowed to use volatile function inside row_filter
but caution must
be exercised with regard to writes as any expression which will do writes
will throw error and stop replication.
It's also worth noting that the row_filter
is running inside the replication
session so session specific expressions such as CURRENT_USER
will have
values of the replication session and not the session which did the writes.
On the subscriber the row based filtering can be implemented using standard
BEFORE TRIGGER
mechanism.
It is required to mark any such triggers as either ENABLE REPLICA
or
ENABLE ALWAYS
otherwise they will not be executed by the replication
process.
Synchronous replication is supported using same standard mechanism provided by PostgreSQL for physical replication.
The synchronous_commit
and synchronous_standby_names
settings will affect
when COMMIT
command reports success to client if pglogical subscription
name is used in synchronous_standby_names
. Refer to PostgreSQL
documentation for more info about how to configure these two variables.
In case the node is subscribed to multiple providers, or when local writes happen on a subscriber, conflicts can arise for the incoming changes. These are automatically detected and can be acted on depending on the configuration.
The configuration of the conflicts resolver is done via the
pglogical.conflict_resolution
setting.
The resolved conflicts are logged using the log level set using
pglogical.conflict_log_level
. This parameter defaults to LOG
. If set to
lower level than log_min_messages
the resolved conflicts won't appear in
the server log.
Some aspects of PGLogical can be configured using configuration options that
can be either set in postgresql.conf
or via ALTER SYSTEM SET
.
-
pglogical.conflict_resolution
Sets the resolution method for any detected conflicts between local data and incoming changes.Possible values:
error
- the replication will stop on error if conflict is detected and manual action is needed for resolvingapply_remote
- always apply the change that's conflicting with local datakeep_local
- keep the local version of the data and ignore the conflicting change that is coming from the remote nodelast_update_wins
- the version of data with newest commit timestamp will be kept (this can be either local or remote version)first_update_wins
- the version of the data with oldest timestamp will be kept (this can be either local or remote version)
The available settings and defaults depend on version of PostgreSQL and other settings.
The default value in PostgreSQL is
apply_remote
.The
keep_local
,last_update_wins
andfirst_update_wins
settings requiretrack_commit_timestamp
PostgreSQL setting to be enabled. Astrack_commit_timestamp
is not available in PostgreSQL 9.4pglogical.conflict_resolution
can only beapply_remote
orerror
.In Postgres-XL, the only supported value and the default is
error
. -
pglogical.conflict_log_level
Sets the log level for reporting detected conflicts when thepglogical.conflict_resolution
is set to anything else thanerror
.Main use for this setting is to suppress logging of conflicts.
Possible values are same as for
log_min_messages
PostgreSQL setting.The default is
LOG
. -
pglogical.batch_inserts
Tells PGLogical to use batch insert mechanism if possible. Batch mechanism uses PostgreSQL internal batch insert mode which is also used byCOPY
command.The batch inserts will improve replication performance of transactions that did many inserts into one table. PGLogical will switch to batch mode when transaction did more than 5 INSERTs.
It's only possible to switch to batch mode when there are no
INSTEAD OF INSERT
andBEFORE INSERT
triggers on the table and when there are no defaults with volatile expressions for columns of the table. Also the batch mode will only work whenpglogical.conflict_resolution
is set toerror
.The default is
true
. -
pglogical.use_spi
Tells PGLogical to use SPI interface to form actual SQL (INSERT
,UPDATE
,DELETE
) statements to apply incoming changes instead of using internal low level interface.This is mainly useful for Postgres-XL and debugging purposes.
The default in PostgreSQL is
false
.This can be set to
true
only whenpglogical.conflict_resolution
is set toerror
. In this state, conflicts are not detected.In Postgres-XL the default and only allowed setting is
true
. -
pglogical.temp_directory
Defines system path where to put temporary files needed for schema synchronization. This path need to exist and be writable by user running Postgres.Default is empty, which tells PGLogical to use default temporary directory based on environment and operating system settings.
Currently pglogical replication and administration requires superuser privileges. It may be later extended to more granular privileges.
UNLOGGED
and TEMPORARY
tables will not and cannot be replicated, much like
with physical streaming replication.
To replicate multiple databases you must set up individual provider/subscriber relationships for each. There is no way to configure replication for all databases in a PostgreSQL install at once.
UPDATE
s and DELETE
s cannot be replicated for tables that lack a PRIMARY KEY
or other valid replica identity such as using an index, which must be unique,
not partial, not deferrable, and include only columns marked NOT NULL.
Replication has no way to find the tuple that should be updated/deleted since
there is no unique identifier.
REPLICA IDENTITY FULL
is not supported yet.
If more than one upstream is configured or the downstream accepts local writes
then only one UNIQUE
index should be present on downstream replicated tables.
Conflict resolution can only use one index at a time so conflicting rows may
ERROR
if a row satisfies the PRIMARY KEY
but violates a UNIQUE
constraint
on the downstream side. This will stop replication until the downstream table
is modified to remove the violation.
It's fine to have extra unique constraints on an upstream if the downstream only gets writes from that upstream and nowhere else. The rule is that the downstream constraints must not be more restrictive than those on the upstream(s).
Partial secondary unique indexes are permitted, but will be ignored for conflict resolution purposes.
On the downstream end pglogical does not support index-based constraints
defined as DEFERRABLE
. It will emit the error
ERROR: pglogical doesn't support index rechecks needed for deferrable indexes
DETAIL: relation "public"."test_relation" has deferrable indexes: "index1", "index2"
if such an index is present when it attempts to apply changes to a table.
Automatic DDL replication is not supported. Managing DDL so that the provider and subscriber database(s) remain compatible is the responsibility of the user.
pglogical provides the pglogical.replicate_ddl_command
function to allow DDL
to be run on the provider and subscriber at a consistent point.
If you need DDL replication, you can look at EnterpriseDB's Postgres Distributed product which is built on pglogical.
There's no support for freezing transactions on the master and waiting until all pending queued xacts are replayed from slots. Support for making the upstream read-only for this will be added in a future release.
This means that care must be taken when applying table structure changes. If there are committed transactions that aren't yet replicated and the table structure of the provider and subscriber are changed at the same time in a way that makes the subscriber table incompatible with the queued transactions replication will stop.
Administrators should either ensure that writes to the master are stopped
before making schema changes, or use the pglogical.replicate_ddl_command
function to queue schema changes so they're replayed at a consistent point
on the replica.
Once multi-master replication support is added then using
pglogical.replicate_ddl_command
will not be enough, as the subscriber may be
generating new xacts with the old structure after the schema change is
committed on the publisher. Users will have to ensure writes are stopped on all
nodes and all slots are caught up before making schema changes.
Foreign keys constraints are not enforced for the replication process - what
succeeds on provider side gets applied to subscriber even if the FOREIGN KEY
would be violated.
Using TRUNCATE ... CASCADE
will only apply the CASCADE
option on the
provider side.
(Properly handling this would probably require the addition of ON TRUNCATE CASCADE
support for foreign keys in PostgreSQL).
TRUNCATE ... RESTART IDENTITY
is not supported. The identity restart step is
not replicated to the replica.
The state of sequences added to replication sets is replicated periodically
and not in real-time. Dynamic buffer is used for the value being replicated so
that the subscribers actually receive future state of the sequence. This
minimizes the chance of subscriber's notion of sequence's last_value
falling
behind but does not completely eliminate the possibility.
It might be desirable to call synchronize_sequence
to ensure all subscribers
have up to date information about given sequence after "big events" in the
database such as data loading or during the online upgrade.
It's generally recommended to use bigserial
and bigint
types for sequences
on multi-node systems as smaller sequences might reach end of the sequence
space fast.
Users who want to have independent sequences on provider and subscriber can
avoid adding sequences to replication sets and create sequences with step
interval equal to or greater than the number of nodes. And then setting a
different offset on each node. Use the INCREMENT BY
option for
CREATE SEQUENCE
or ALTER SEQUENCE
, and use setval(...)
to set the start
point.
Apply process and the initial COPY process both run with
session_replication_role
set to replica
which means that ENABLE REPLICA
and ENABLE ALWAYS
triggers will be fired.
PGLogical can replicate across PostgreSQL major versions. Despite that, long term cross-version replication is not considered a design target, though it may often work. Issues where changes are valid on the provider but not on the subscriber are more likely to arise when replicating across versions.
It is safer to replicate from an old version to a newer version since PostgreSQL maintains solid backward compatibility but only limited forward compatibility. Initial schema synchronization is only supported when replicating between same version of PostgreSQL or from lower version to higher version.
Replicating between different minor versions makes no difference at all.
PGLogical does not support replication between databases with different
encoding. We recommend using UTF-8
encoding in all replicated databases.
PostgreSQL's logical decoding facility does not support decoding changes to large objects, so pglogical cannot replicate large objects.
Minimum supported version of Postgres-XL is 9.5r1.5.
Postgres-XL is only supported as subscriber (cannot be a provider). For workloads with many small transactions the performance of replication may suffer due to increased write latency. On the other hand large insert (or bulkcopy) transactions are heavily optimized to work very fast with Postgres-XL.
Also any DDL limitations apply so extra care need to be taken when using
replicate_ddl_command()
.
Postgres-XL changes defaults and available settings for
pglogical.conflict_resolution
and pglogical.use_spi
configuration options.
pglogical has been designed, developed and tested by the 2ndQuadrant team
- Petr Jelinek
- Craig Ringer
- Simon Riggs
- Pallavi Sontakke
- Umair Shahid
pglogical license is The PostgreSQL License
pglogical copyright is donated to PostgreSQL Global Development Group
Version 2.4.5 is a maintenance release of pglogical 2.
-
Add support for PostgreSQL 17.
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Maintain indexes when updating pglogical.sequence_state.
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Don't use invalid indexes for conflict resolution.
Version 2.4.4 is a maintenance release of pglogical 2.
- Add support for PostgreSQL 16.
Version 2.4.3 is a maintenance release of pglogical 2.
-
Apply data filtering on the correct tuple during initial synchronization.
-
Restore the correct memory context while decoding a change.
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Drop database never completes in PostgreSQL 15.
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Don't replicate TRUNCATE as global message.
Version 2.4.2 is a maintenance release of pglogical 2.
- Add support for PostgreSQL 15.
Version 2.4.1 is a maintenance release of pglogical 2.
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Fix "snapshot still active" warnings and snapshot handling with domains. Problems introduced in version 2.4.0.
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Flush error state when having failed to drop remote replication slot
Version 2.4.0 is a maintenance release of pglogical 2.
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Add preliminary support for PostgreSQL 14 (beta)
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Fix pglogical_show_subscription_table to return row rather than set of rows
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Fix snapshot handling in output plugin and apply worker
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Fix command quoting on Windows so that it actually works
Seems like the API used before has 1024 limit on command line length -
Make sure that the schema syncing process can be interrupted on Windows
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Fix compilation issues with pglogical_create_subscriber on Windows
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Fix double closing of relation when a BEFORE ROW DELETE trigger returns NULL in the apply worker
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Fix multi-insert crash in the SPI apply worker
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Fix multi-insert doing insert of last tuple multiple times in apply worker
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Make sure debug_query_string is always set
Newer versions of PostgreSQL require that debug_query_string is always set.