Loading...
Loading...
Loading...
Loading...
Loading...
Loading...
Loading...
Loading...
Loading...
Loading...
Loading...
Loading...
Loading...
在您可以做任何事情之前，您必須在磁碟中初始化一個資料庫儲存區域。 我們稱之為數據庫叢集(Database Cluster，SQL 標準術語為 Catalog Cluster）。資料庫叢集是由正在運行的資料庫伺服器的單一個執行實例管理的資料庫集合。 初始化後，資料庫叢集將包含一個名為 postgres 的資料庫，這是供工具程式、資料庫使用者和第三方應用程式所預設的資料庫。 資料庫伺服器本身不需要 postgres 資料庫存在，但許多外部工具會假設它存在。 初始化期間在每個叢集中所建置的另一個資料庫稱為 template1。 顧名思義，這將作為後續建立的資料庫的樣板； 它不應該用於實際的資料作業。 （有關在叢集中建立新資料庫的說明，請參閱第 23 章。）
In file system terms, a database cluster is a single directory under which all data will be stored. We call this the data directory or data area. It is completely up to you where you choose to store your data. There is no default, although locations such as /usr/local/pgsql/data or /var/lib/pgsql/data are popular. To initialize a database cluster, use the command initdb, which is installed with PostgreSQL. The desired file system location of your database cluster is indicated by the -D option, for example:
Note that you must execute this command while logged into the PostgreSQL user account, which is described in the previous section.
As an alternative to the -D option, you can set the environment variable PGDATA.
Alternatively, you can run initdb via the pg_ctl program like so:
如果您使用 pg_ctl 來啟動和停止伺服器（請參閱第 19.3 節），這相當直覺，因此 pg_ctl 將是您用於管理資料庫伺服器實例的唯一命令。
initdb will attempt to create the directory you specify if it does not already exist. Of course, this will fail if initdb does not have permissions to write in the parent directory. It's generally recommendable that the PostgreSQL user own not just the data directory but its parent directory as well, so that this should not be a problem. If the desired parent directory doesn't exist either, you will need to create it first, using root privileges if the grandparent directory isn't writable. So the process might look like this:
initdb will refuse to run if the data directory exists and already contains files; this is to prevent accidentally overwriting an existing installation.
Because the data directory contains all the data stored in the database, it is essential that it be secured from unauthorized access. initdb therefore revokes access permissions from everyone but the PostgreSQL user, and optionally, group. Group access, when enabled, is read-only. This allows an unprivileged user in the same group as the cluster owner to take a backup of the cluster data or perform other operations that only require read access.
Note that enabling or disabling group access on an existing cluster requires the cluster to be shut down and the appropriate mode to be set on all directories and files before restarting PostgreSQL. Otherwise, a mix of modes might exist in the data directory. For clusters that allow access only by the owner, the appropriate modes are 0700 for directories and 0600 for files. For clusters that also allow reads by the group, the appropriate modes are 0750 for directories and 0640 for files.
However, while the directory contents are secure, the default client authentication setup allows any local user to connect to the database and even become the database superuser. If you do not trust other local users, we recommend you use one of initdb's -W, --pwprompt or --pwfile options to assign a password to the database superuser. Also, specify -A scram-sha-256 so that the default trust authentication mode is not used; or modify the generated pg_hba.conf file after running initdb, but before you start the server for the first time. (Other reasonable approaches include using peer authentication or file system permissions to restrict connections. See Chapter 21 for more information.)
initdb also initializes the default locale for the database cluster. Normally, it will just take the locale settings in the environment and apply them to the initialized database. It is possible to specify a different locale for the database; more information about that can be found in Section 24.1. The default sort order used within the particular database cluster is set by initdb, and while you can create new databases using different sort order, the order used in the template databases that initdb creates cannot be changed without dropping and recreating them. There is also a performance impact for using locales other than C or POSIX. Therefore, it is important to make this choice correctly the first time.
initdb also sets the default character set encoding for the database cluster. Normally this should be chosen to match the locale setting. For details see Section 24.3.
Non-C and non-POSIX locales rely on the operating system's collation library for character set ordering. This controls the ordering of keys stored in indexes. For this reason, a cluster cannot switch to an incompatible collation library version, either through snapshot restore, binary streaming replication, a different operating system, or an operating system upgrade.
Many installations create their database clusters on file systems (volumes) other than the machine's “root” volume. If you choose to do this, it is not advisable to try to use the secondary volume's topmost directory (mount point) as the data directory. Best practice is to create a directory within the mount-point directory that is owned by the PostgreSQL user, and then create the data directory within that. This avoids permissions problems, particularly for operations such as pg_upgrade, and it also ensures clean failures if the secondary volume is taken offline.
一般來說，任何具備 POSIX 標準的檔案系統都可以用於 PostgreSQL。 由於各種原因，使用者可能會使用不同的檔案系統，包括供應商支援、效能和熟悉程度。經驗上來說，在所有其他條件都相同的情況下，不應該僅因為切換檔案系統或進行次要的檔案系統配置變更，而期待效能或行為有明顯的改變。
可以使用 NFS 檔案系統來儲存 PostgreSQL 資料目錄。PostgreSQL 對 NFS 檔案系統並沒有任何特殊的要求，這意味著它假設 NFS 的行為與本地連接的磁碟完全相同。PostgreSQL 不使用已知在NFS上具有非標準行為的任何功能，例如檔案鎖定。
將 NFS 與 PostgreSQL 一起使用時，唯一確定要求是使用 hard 選項安裝檔案系統。使用 hard 選項，如果出現網路問題，NFS 程序可以無限期「hang」（暫停），因此此配置將需要仔細的監控。如果出現網路問題，soft 選項會中斷系統呼，但是 PostgreSQL 不會重複以此方式中斷的系統呼叫，因此任何此類中斷都將導致回報 I/O 錯誤。
不必要使用同步（sync）掛載選項。 async 選項的行為就足夠了，因為 PostgreSQL 會在適當的時機發出 fsync 呼叫來強制緩衝寫入。（這類似於它在本機檔案系統上的工作方式。）但是，強烈建議在存在該檔案的系統（主要是 Linux）上的 NFS 伺服器上使用 sync export 選項。否則，實際上不能保證 NFS 用戶端上的 fsync 或等效檔案可以到達伺服器上的永久儲存，這可能導致損壞，類似於在關閉參數 fsync 的情況下提供服務。這些掛載和輸出選項的預設設定在不同的供應商和版本之間略所不同，因此建議在任何情況下都需要進行檢查並且明確指定它們的內容，以避免任何誤解。
在某些情況下，可以透過 NFS 或更低等級的通訊協定（例如 iSCSI）存取外部儲存產品。在後者，儲存裝置為 block device，可以在其上建立任何可用的檔案系統。這種方法可能使 DBA 不必處理 NFS 的某些特質，不過，管理遠端儲存服務的複雜性會仍發生在其他層級之中。
與外部世界可存取的任何伺服器背景程序一樣，建議在單獨的使用者帳戶下運行 PostgreSQL。此使用者帳戶應僅擁有由伺服器管理的資料，不應與其他背景程序共享。（例如，使用使用者 nobody 就是個壞主意。）安裝此使用者所擁有的可執行檔案不可取，因為有漏洞的系統可以修改它們自己的可執行檔案。
要將 Unix 使用者帳號加到系統中，請查詢指令 useradd 或 adduser。使用者名稱 postgres 經常被使用，也在本使用手冊中被假定，但如果你想要，也可以使用其他名字。
This section discusses how to upgrade your database data from one PostgreSQL release to a newer one.
Current PostgreSQL version numbers consist of a major and a minor version number. For example, in the version number 10.1, the 10 is the major version number and the 1 is the minor version number, meaning this would be the first minor release of the major release 10. For releases before PostgreSQL version 10.0, version numbers consist of three numbers, for example, 9.5.3. In those cases, the major version consists of the first two digit groups of the version number, e.g., 9.5, and the minor version is the third number, e.g., 3, meaning this would be the third minor release of the major release 9.5.
Minor releases never change the internal storage format and are always compatible with earlier and later minor releases of the same major version number. For example, version 10.1 is compatible with version 10.0 and version 10.6. Similarly, for example, 9.5.3 is compatible with 9.5.0, 9.5.1, and 9.5.6. To update between compatible versions, you simply replace the executables while the server is down and restart the server. The data directory remains unchanged — minor upgrades are that simple.
For major releases of PostgreSQL, the internal data storage format is subject to change, thus complicating upgrades. The traditional method for moving data to a new major version is to dump and reload the database, though this can be slow. A faster method is pg_upgrade. Replication methods are also available, as discussed below.
New major versions also typically introduce some user-visible incompatibilities, so application programming changes might be required. All user-visible changes are listed in the release notes (Appendix E); pay particular attention to the section labeled "Migration". If you are upgrading across several major versions, be sure to read the release notes for each intervening version.
Cautious users will want to test their client applications on the new version before switching over fully; therefore, it's often a good idea to set up concurrent installations of old and new versions. When testing a PostgreSQL major upgrade, consider the following categories of possible changes:Administration
The capabilities available for administrators to monitor and control the server often change and improve in each major release.SQL
Typically this includes new SQL command capabilities and not changes in behavior, unless specifically mentioned in the release notes.Library API
Typically libraries like libpq only add new functionality, again unless mentioned in the release notes.System Catalogs
System catalog changes usually only affect database management tools.Server C-language API
This involves changes in the backend function API, which is written in the C programming language. Such changes affect code that references backend functions deep inside the server.
One upgrade method is to dump data from one major version of PostgreSQL and reload it in another — to do this, you must use a logical backup tool like pg_dumpall; file system level backup methods will not work. (There are checks in place that prevent you from using a data directory with an incompatible version of PostgreSQL, so no great harm can be done by trying to start the wrong server version on a data directory.)
It is recommended that you use the pg_dump and pg_dumpall programs from the newer version of PostgreSQL, to take advantage of enhancements that might have been made in these programs. Current releases of the dump programs can read data from any server version back to 7.0.
These instructions assume that your existing installation is under the /usr/local/pgsql directory, and that the data area is in /usr/local/pgsql/data. Substitute your paths appropriately.
If making a backup, make sure that your database is not being updated. This does not affect the integrity of the backup, but the changed data would of course not be included. If necessary, edit the permissions in the file /usr/local/pgsql/data/pg_hba.conf (or equivalent) to disallow access from everyone except you. See Chapter 20 for additional information on access control.
To back up your database installation, type:
To make the backup, you can use the pg_dumpall command from the version you are currently running; see Section 25.1.2 for more details. For best results, however, try to use the pg_dumpall command from PostgreSQL 12.2, since this version contains bug fixes and improvements over older versions. While this advice might seem idiosyncratic since you haven't installed the new version yet, it is advisable to follow it if you plan to install the new version in parallel with the old version. In that case you can complete the installation normally and transfer the data later. This will also decrease the downtime.
Shut down the old server:
On systems that have PostgreSQL started at boot time, there is probably a start-up file that will accomplish the same thing. For example, on a Red Hat Linux system one might find that this works:
See Chapter 18 for details about starting and stopping the server.
If restoring from backup, rename or delete the old installation directory if it is not version-specific. It is a good idea to rename the directory, rather than delete it, in case you have trouble and need to revert to it. Keep in mind the directory might consume significant disk space. To rename the directory, use a command like this:
(Be sure to move the directory as a single unit so relative paths remain unchanged.)
Install the new version of PostgreSQL as outlined in Section 16.4.
Create a new database cluster if needed. Remember that you must execute these commands while logged in to the special database user account (which you already have if you are upgrading).
Restore your previous pg_hba.conf and any postgresql.conf modifications.
Start the database server, again using the special database user account:
Finally, restore your data from backup with:
using the new psql.
The least downtime can be achieved by installing the new server in a different directory and running both the old and the new servers in parallel, on different ports. Then you can use something like:
to transfer your data.
The pg_upgrade module allows an installation to be migrated in-place from one major PostgreSQL version to another. Upgrades can be performed in minutes, particularly with --link mode. It requires steps similar to pg_dumpall above, e.g. starting/stopping the server, running initdb. The pg_upgrade documentation outlines the necessary steps.
It is also possible to use logical replication methods to create a standby server with the updated version of PostgreSQL. This is possible because logical replication supports replication between different major versions of PostgreSQL. The standby can be on the same computer or a different computer. Once it has synced up with the master server (running the older version of PostgreSQL), you can switch masters and make the standby the master and shut down the older database instance. Such a switch-over results in only several seconds of downtime for an upgrade.
This method of upgrading can be performed using the built-in logical replication facilities as well as using external logical replication systems such as pglogical, Slony, Londiste, and Bucardo.\
Before anyone can access the database, you must start the database server. The database server program is called postgres. The postgres program must know where to find the data it is supposed to use. This is done with the -D option. Thus, the simplest way to start the server is:
which will leave the server running in the foreground. This must be done while logged into the PostgreSQL user account. Without -D, the server will try to use the data directory named by the environment variable PGDATA. If that variable is not provided either, it will fail.
Normally it is better to start postgres in the background. For this, use the usual Unix shell syntax:
It is important to store the server's stdout and stderr output somewhere, as shown above. It will help for auditing purposes and to diagnose problems. (See Section 24.3 for a more thorough discussion of log file handling.)
The postgres program also takes a number of other command-line options. For more information, see the postgres reference page and Chapter 19 below.
This shell syntax can get tedious quickly. Therefore the wrapper program pg_ctl is provided to simplify some tasks. For example:
will start the server in the background and put the output into the named log file. The -D option has the same meaning here as for postgres. pg_ctl is also capable of stopping the server.
Normally, you will want to start the database server when the computer boots. Autostart scripts are operating-system-specific. There are a few distributed with PostgreSQL in the contrib/start-scripts directory. Installing one will require root privileges.
Different systems have different conventions for starting up daemons at boot time. Many systems have a file /etc/rc.local or /etc/rc.d/rc.local. Others use init.d or rc.d directories. Whatever you do, the server must be run by the PostgreSQL user account and not by root or any other user. Therefore you probably should form your commands using su postgres -c '...'. For example:
Here are a few more operating-system-specific suggestions. (In each case be sure to use the proper installation directory and user name where we show generic values.)
For FreeBSD, look at the file contrib/start-scripts/freebsd in the PostgreSQL source distribution.
On OpenBSD, add the following lines to the file /etc/rc.local:
On Linux systems either add
to /etc/rc.d/rc.local or /etc/rc.local or look at the file contrib/start-scripts/linux in the PostgreSQL source distribution.
When using systemd, you can use the following service unit file (e.g., at /etc/systemd/system/postgresql.service):
Using Type=notify requires that the server binary was built with configure --with-systemd.
Consider carefully the timeout setting. systemd has a default timeout of 90 seconds as of this writing and will kill a process that does not notify readiness within that time. But a PostgreSQL server that might have to perform crash recovery at startup could take much longer to become ready. The suggested value of 0 disables the timeout logic.
On NetBSD, use either the FreeBSD or Linux start scripts, depending on preference.
On Solaris, create a file called /etc/init.d/postgresql that contains the following line:
Then, create a symbolic link to it in /etc/rc3.d as S99postgresql.
While the server is running, its PID is stored in the file postmaster.pid in the data directory. This is used to prevent multiple server instances from running in the same data directory and can also be used for shutting down the server.
There are several common reasons the server might fail to start. Check the server's log file, or start it by hand (without redirecting standard output or standard error) and see what error messages appear. Below we explain some of the most common error messages in more detail.
This usually means just what it suggests: you tried to start another server on the same port where one is already running. However, if the kernel error message is not Address already in use or some variant of that, there might be a different problem. For example, trying to start a server on a reserved port number might draw something like:
A message like:
probably means your kernel's limit on the size of shared memory is smaller than the work area PostgreSQL is trying to create (4011376640 bytes in this example). Or it could mean that you do not have System-V-style shared memory support configured into your kernel at all. As a temporary workaround, you can try starting the server with a smaller-than-normal number of buffers (shared_buffers). You will eventually want to reconfigure your kernel to increase the allowed shared memory size. You might also see this message when trying to start multiple servers on the same machine, if their total space requested exceeds the kernel limit.
An error like:
does not mean you've run out of disk space. It means your kernel's limit on the number of System V semaphores is smaller than the number PostgreSQL wants to create. As above, you might be able to work around the problem by starting the server with a reduced number of allowed connections (max_connections), but you'll eventually want to increase the kernel limit.
If you get an “illegal system call” error, it is likely that shared memory or semaphores are not supported in your kernel at all. In that case your only option is to reconfigure the kernel to enable these features.
Details about configuring System V IPC facilities are given in Section 18.4.1.
Although the error conditions possible on the client side are quite varied and application-dependent, a few of them might be directly related to how the server was started. Conditions other than those shown below should be documented with the respective client application.
This is the generic “I couldn't find a server to talk to” failure. It looks like the above when TCP/IP communication is attempted. A common mistake is to forget to configure the server to allow TCP/IP connections.
Alternatively, you'll get this when attempting Unix-domain socket communication to a local server:
The last line is useful in verifying that the client is trying to connect to the right place. If there is in fact no server running there, the kernel error message will typically be either Connection refused or No such file or directory, as illustrated. (It is important to realize that Connection refused in this context does not mean that the server got your connection request and rejected it. That case will produce a different message, as shown in Section 20.15.) Other error messages such as Connection timed out might indicate more fundamental problems, like lack of network connectivity.
There are several ways to shut down the database server. You control the type of shutdown by sending different signals to the master postgres process.SIGTERM
This is the Smart Shutdown mode. After receiving SIGTERM, the server disallows new connections, but lets existing sessions end their work normally. It shuts down only after all of the sessions terminate. If the server is in online backup mode, it additionally waits until online backup mode is no longer active. While backup mode is active, new connections will still be allowed, but only to superusers (this exception allows a superuser to connect to terminate online backup mode). If the server is in recovery when a smart shutdown is requested, recovery and streaming replication will be stopped only after all regular sessions have terminated.SIGINT
This is the Fast Shutdown mode. The server disallows new connections and sends all existing server processes SIGTERM, which will cause them to abort their current transactions and exit promptly. It then waits for all server processes to exit and finally shuts down. If the server is in online backup mode, backup mode will be terminated, rendering the backup useless.SIGQUIT
This is the Immediate Shutdown mode. The server will send SIGQUIT to all child processes and wait for them to terminate. If any do not terminate within 5 seconds, they will be sent SIGKILL. The master server process exits as soon as all child processes have exited, without doing normal database shutdown processing. This will lead to recovery (by replaying the WAL log) upon next start-up. This is recommended only in emergencies.
The pg_ctl program provides a convenient interface for sending these signals to shut down the server. Alternatively, you can send the signal directly using kill on non-Windows systems. The PID of the postgres process can be found using the ps program, or from the file postmaster.pid in the data directory. For example, to do a fast shutdown:
It is best not to use SIGKILL to shut down the server. Doing so will prevent the server from releasing shared memory and semaphores. Furthermore, SIGKILL kills the postgres process without letting it relay the signal to its subprocesses, so it might be necessary to kill the individual subprocesses by hand as well.
To terminate an individual session while allowing other sessions to continue, use pg_terminate_backend() (see Table 9.83) or send a SIGTERM signal to the child process associated with the session.
PostgreSQL also has native support for using GSSAPI to encrypt client/server communications for increased security. Support requires that a GSSAPI implementation (such as MIT krb5) is installed on both client and server systems, and that support in PostgreSQL is enabled at build time (see Chapter 16).
The PostgreSQL server will listen for both normal and GSSAPI-encrypted connections on the same TCP port, and will negotiate with any connecting client on whether to use GSSAPI for encryption (and for authentication). By default, this decision is up to the client (which means it can be downgraded by an attacker); see Section 20.1 about setting up the server to require the use of GSSAPI for some or all connections.
Other than configuration of the negotiation behavior, GSSAPI encryption requires no setup beyond that which is necessary for GSSAPI authentication. (For more information on configuring that, see Section 20.6.)\
本章討論如何設定和運行資料庫伺服器及其與作業系統的互動。
While the server is running, it is not possible for a malicious user to take the place of the normal database server. However, when the server is down, it is possible for a local user to spoof the normal server by starting their own server. The spoof server could read passwords and queries sent by clients, but could not return any data because the PGDATA directory would still be secure because of directory permissions. Spoofing is possible because any user can start a database server; a client cannot identify an invalid server unless it is specially configured.
One way to prevent spoofing of local connections is to use a Unix domain socket directory (unix_socket_directories) that has write permission only for a trusted local user. This prevents a malicious user from creating their own socket file in that directory. If you are concerned that some applications might still reference /tmp for the socket file and hence be vulnerable to spoofing, during operating system startup create a symbolic link /tmp/.s.PGSQL.5432 that points to the relocated socket file. You also might need to modify your /tmp cleanup script to prevent removal of the symbolic link.
Another option for local connections is for clients to use requirepeer to specify the required owner of the server process connected to the socket.
To prevent spoofing on TCP connections, either use SSL certificates and make sure that clients check the server's certificate, or use GSSAPI encryption (or both, if they're on separate connections).
To prevent spoofing with SSL, the server must be configured to accept only hostssl connections (Section 20.1) and have SSL key and certificate files (Section 18.9). The TCP client must connect using sslmode=verify-ca or verify-full and have the appropriate root certificate file installed (Section 33.18.1).
To prevent spoofing with GSSAPI, the server must be configured to accept only hostgssenc connections (Section 20.1) and use gss authentication with them. The TCP client must connect using gssencmode=require.
PostgreSQL has native support for using SSL connections to encrypt client/server communications for increased security. This requires that OpenSSL is installed on both client and server systems and that support in PostgreSQL is enabled at build time (see Chapter 16).
With SSL support compiled in, the PostgreSQL server can be started with SSL enabled by setting the parameter ssl to on in postgresql.conf. The server will listen for both normal and SSL connections on the same TCP port, and will negotiate with any connecting client on whether to use SSL. By default, this is at the client's option; see Section 20.1 about how to set up the server to require use of SSL for some or all connections.
To start in SSL mode, files containing the server certificate and private key must exist. By default, these files are expected to be named server.crt and server.key, respectively, in the server's data directory, but other names and locations can be specified using the configuration parameters ssl_cert_file and ssl_key_file.
On Unix systems, the permissions on server.key must disallow any access to world or group; achieve this by the command chmod 0600 server.key. Alternatively, the file can be owned by root and have group read access (that is, 0640 permissions). That setup is intended for installations where certificate and key files are managed by the operating system. The user under which the PostgreSQL server runs should then be made a member of the group that has access to those certificate and key files.
If the data directory allows group read access then certificate files may need to be located outside of the data directory in order to conform to the security requirements outlined above. Generally, group access is enabled to allow an unprivileged user to backup the database, and in that case the backup software will not be able to read the certificate files and will likely error.
If the private key is protected with a passphrase, the server will prompt for the passphrase and will not start until it has been entered. Using a passphrase by default disables the ability to change the server's SSL configuration without a server restart, but see ssl_passphrase_command_supports_reload. Furthermore, passphrase-protected private keys cannot be used at all on Windows.
The first certificate in server.crt must be the server's certificate because it must match the server's private key. The certificates of “intermediate” certificate authorities can also be appended to the file. Doing this avoids the necessity of storing intermediate certificates on clients, assuming the root and intermediate certificates were created with v3_ca extensions. This allows easier expiration of intermediate certificates.
It is not necessary to add the root certificate to server.crt. Instead, clients must have the root certificate of the server's certificate chain.
PostgreSQL reads the system-wide OpenSSL configuration file. By default, this file is named openssl.cnf and is located in the directory reported by openssl version -d. This default can be overridden by setting environment variable OPENSSL_CONF to the name of the desired configuration file.
OpenSSL supports a wide range of ciphers and authentication algorithms, of varying strength. While a list of ciphers can be specified in the OpenSSL configuration file, you can specify ciphers specifically for use by the database server by modifying ssl_ciphers in postgresql.conf.
It is possible to have authentication without encryption overhead by using NULL-SHA or NULL-MD5 ciphers. However, a man-in-the-middle could read and pass communications between client and server. Also, encryption overhead is minimal compared to the overhead of authentication. For these reasons NULL ciphers are not recommended.
To require the client to supply a trusted certificate, place certificates of the root certificate authorities (CAs) you trust in a file in the data directory, set the parameter ssl_ca_file in postgresql.conf to the new file name, and add the authentication option clientcert=verify-ca or clientcert=verify-full to the appropriate hostssl line(s) in pg_hba.conf. A certificate will then be requested from the client during SSL connection startup. (See Section 33.18 for a description of how to set up certificates on the client.)
For a hostssl entry with clientcert=verify-ca, the server will verify that the client's certificate is signed by one of the trusted certificate authorities. If clientcert=verify-full is specified, the server will not only verify the certificate chain, but it will also check whether the username or its mapping matches the cn (Common Name) of the provided certificate. Note that certificate chain validation is always ensured when the cert authentication method is used (see Section 20.12).
Intermediate certificates that chain up to existing root certificates can also appear in the ssl_ca_file file if you wish to avoid storing them on clients (assuming the root and intermediate certificates were created with v3_ca extensions). Certificate Revocation List (CRL) entries are also checked if the parameter ssl_crl_file is set. (See http://h41379.www4.hpe.com/doc/83final/ba554_90007/ch04s02.html for diagrams showing SSL certificate usage.)
The clientcert authentication option is available for all authentication methods, but only in pg_hba.conf lines specified as hostssl. When clientcert is not specified or is set to no-verify, the server will still verify any presented client certificates against its CA file, if one is configured — but it will not insist that a client certificate be presented.
There are two approaches to enforce that users provide a certificate during login.
The first approach makes use of the cert authentication method for hostssl entries in pg_hba.conf, such that the certificate itself is used for authentication while also providing ssl connection security. See Section 20.12 for details. (It is not necessary to specify any clientcert options explicitly when using the cert authentication method.) In this case, the cn (Common Name) provided in the certificate is checked against the user name or an applicable mapping.
The second approach combines any authentication method for hostssl entries with the verification of client certificates by setting the clientcert authentication option to verify-ca or verify-full. The former option only enforces that the certificate is valid, while the latter also ensures that the cn (Common Name) in the certificate matches the user name or an applicable mapping.
Table 18.2 summarizes the files that are relevant to the SSL setup on the server. (The shown file names are default names. The locally configured names could be different.)
The server reads these files at server start and whenever the server configuration is reloaded. On Windows systems, they are also re-read whenever a new backend process is spawned for a new client connection.
If an error in these files is detected at server start, the server will refuse to start. But if an error is detected during a configuration reload, the files are ignored and the old SSL configuration continues to be used. On Windows systems, if an error in these files is detected at backend start, that backend will be unable to establish an SSL connection. In all these cases, the error condition is reported in the server log.
To create a simple self-signed certificate for the server, valid for 365 days, use the following OpenSSL command, replacing dbhost.yourdomain.com with the server's host name:
Then do:
because the server will reject the file if its permissions are more liberal than this. For more details on how to create your server private key and certificate, refer to the OpenSSL documentation.
While a self-signed certificate can be used for testing, a certificate signed by a certificate authority (CA) (usually an enterprise-wide root CA) should be used in production.
To create a server certificate whose identity can be validated by clients, first create a certificate signing request (CSR) and a public/private key file:
Then, sign the request with the key to create a root certificate authority (using the default OpenSSL configuration file location on Linux):
Finally, create a server certificate signed by the new root certificate authority:
server.crt and server.key should be stored on the server, and root.crt should be stored on the client so the client can verify that the server's leaf certificate was signed by its trusted root certificate. root.key should be stored offline for use in creating future certificates.
It is also possible to create a chain of trust that includes intermediate certificates:
server.crt and intermediate.crt should be concatenated into a certificate file bundle and stored on the server. server.key should also be stored on the server. root.crt should be stored on the client so the client can verify that the server's leaf certificate was signed by a chain of certificates linked to its trusted root certificate. root.key and intermediate.key should be stored offline for use in creating future certificates.
| File | Contents | Effect |
|---|---|---|
ssl_cert_file ($PGDATA/server.crt)
server certificate
sent to client to indicate server's identity
ssl_key_file ($PGDATA/server.key)
server private key
proves server certificate was sent by the owner; does not indicate certificate owner is trustworthy
trusted certificate authorities
checks that client certificate is signed by a trusted certificate authority
certificates revoked by certificate authorities
client certificate must not be on this list
PostgreSQL can sometimes exhaust various operating system resource limits, especially when multiple copies of the server are running on the same system, or in very large installations. This section explains the kernel resources used by PostgreSQL and the steps you can take to resolve problems related to kernel resource consumption.
PostgreSQL requires the operating system to provide inter-process communication (IPC) features, specifically shared memory and semaphores. Unix-derived systems typically provide “System V” IPC, “POSIX” IPC, or both. Windows has its own implementation of these features and is not discussed here.
The complete lack of these facilities is usually manifested by an “Illegal system call” error upon server start. In that case there is no alternative but to reconfigure your kernel. PostgreSQL won't work without them. This situation is rare, however, among modern operating systems.
Upon starting the server, PostgreSQL normally allocates a very small amount of System V shared memory, as well as a much larger amount of POSIX (mmap) shared memory. In addition a significant number of semaphores, which can be either System V or POSIX style, are created at server startup. Currently, POSIX semaphores are used on Linux and FreeBSD systems while other platforms use System V semaphores.
Prior to PostgreSQL 9.3, only System V shared memory was used, so the amount of System V shared memory required to start the server was much larger. If you are running an older version of the server, please consult the documentation for your server version.
System V IPC features are typically constrained by system-wide allocation limits. When PostgreSQL exceeds one of these limits, the server will refuse to start and should leave an instructive error message describing the problem and what to do about it. (See also Section 18.3.1.) The relevant kernel parameters are named consistently across different systems; Table 18.1 gives an overview. The methods to set them, however, vary. Suggestions for some platforms are given below.
Table 18.1. System V IPC Parameters
| Name | Description | Values needed to run one PostgreSQL instance |
|---|---|---|
PostgreSQL requires a few bytes of System V shared memory (typically 48 bytes, on 64-bit platforms) for each copy of the server. On most modern operating systems, this amount can easily be allocated. However, if you are running many copies of the server, or if other applications are also using System V shared memory, it may be necessary to increase SHMALL, which is the total amount of System V shared memory system-wide. Note that SHMALL is measured in pages rather than bytes on many systems.
Less likely to cause problems is the minimum size for shared memory segments (SHMMIN), which should be at most approximately 32 bytes for PostgreSQL (it is usually just 1). The maximum number of segments system-wide (SHMMNI) or per-process (SHMSEG) are unlikely to cause a problem unless your system has them set to zero.
When using System V semaphores, PostgreSQL uses one semaphore per allowed connection (max_connections), allowed autovacuum worker process (autovacuum_max_workers) and allowed background process (max_worker_processes), in sets of 16. Each such set will also contain a 17th semaphore which contains a “magic number”, to detect collision with semaphore sets used by other applications. The maximum number of semaphores in the system is set by SEMMNS, which consequently must be at least as high as max_connections plus autovacuum_max_workers plus max_worker_processes, plus one extra for each 16 allowed connections plus workers (see the formula in Table 18.1). The parameter SEMMNI determines the limit on the number of semaphore sets that can exist on the system at one time. Hence this parameter must be at least ceil((max_connections + autovacuum_max_workers + max_worker_processes + 5) / 16). Lowering the number of allowed connections is a temporary workaround for failures, which are usually confusingly worded “No space left on device”, from the function semget.
In some cases it might also be necessary to increase SEMMAP to be at least on the order of SEMMNS. This parameter defines the size of the semaphore resource map, in which each contiguous block of available semaphores needs an entry. When a semaphore set is freed it is either added to an existing entry that is adjacent to the freed block or it is registered under a new map entry. If the map is full, the freed semaphores get lost (until reboot). Fragmentation of the semaphore space could over time lead to fewer available semaphores than there should be.
Various other settings related to “semaphore undo”, such as SEMMNU and SEMUME, do not affect PostgreSQL.
When using POSIX semaphores, the number of semaphores needed is the same as for System V, that is one semaphore per allowed connection (max_connections), allowed autovacuum worker process (autovacuum_max_workers) and allowed background process (max_worker_processes). On the platforms where this option is preferred, there is no specific kernel limit on the number of POSIX semaphores.AIX
At least as of version 5.1, it should not be necessary to do any special configuration for such parameters as SHMMAX, as it appears this is configured to allow all memory to be used as shared memory. That is the sort of configuration commonly used for other databases such as DB/2.
It might, however, be necessary to modify the global ulimit information in /etc/security/limits, as the default hard limits for file sizes (fsize) and numbers of files (nofiles) might be too low.FreeBSD
The default settings can be changed using the sysctl or loader interfaces. The following parameters can be set using sysctl:
To make these settings persist over reboots, modify /etc/sysctl.conf.
These semaphore-related settings are read-only as far as sysctl is concerned, but can be set in /boot/loader.conf:
After modifying these values a reboot is required for the new settings to take effect. (Note: FreeBSD does not use SEMMAP. Older versions would accept but ignore a setting for kern.ipc.semmap; newer versions reject it altogether.)
You might also want to configure your kernel to lock shared memory into RAM and prevent it from being paged out to swap. This can be accomplished using the sysctl setting kern.ipc.shm_use_phys.
If running in FreeBSD jails by enabling sysctl's security.jail.sysvipc_allowed, postmasters running in different jails should be run by different operating system users. This improves security because it prevents non-root users from interfering with shared memory or semaphores in different jails, and it allows the PostgreSQL IPC cleanup code to function properly. (In FreeBSD 6.0 and later the IPC cleanup code does not properly detect processes in other jails, preventing the running of postmasters on the same port in different jails.)
FreeBSD versions before 4.0 work like OpenBSD (see below).NetBSD
In NetBSD 5.0 and later, IPC parameters can be adjusted using sysctl, for example:
To have these settings persist over reboots, modify /etc/sysctl.conf.
You might also want to configure your kernel to lock shared memory into RAM and prevent it from being paged out to swap. This can be accomplished using the sysctl setting kern.ipc.shm_use_phys.
NetBSD versions before 5.0 work like OpenBSD (see below), except that parameters should be set with the keyword options not option.OpenBSD
The options SYSVSHM and SYSVSEM need to be enabled when the kernel is compiled. (They are by default.) The maximum size of shared memory is determined by the option SHMMAXPGS (in pages). The following shows an example of how to set the various parameters:
You might also want to configure your kernel to lock shared memory into RAM and prevent it from being paged out to swap. This can be accomplished using the sysctl setting kern.ipc.shm_use_phys.HP-UX
The default settings tend to suffice for normal installations. On HP-UX 10, the factory default for SEMMNS is 128, which might be too low for larger database sites.
IPC parameters can be set in the System Administration Manager (SAM) under Kernel Configuration → Configurable Parameters. Choose Create A New Kernel when you're done.Linux
The default maximum segment size is 32 MB, and the default maximum total size is 2097152 pages. A page is almost always 4096 bytes except in unusual kernel configurations with “huge pages” (use getconf PAGE_SIZE to verify).
The shared memory size settings can be changed via the sysctl interface. For example, to allow 16 GB:
In addition these settings can be preserved between reboots in the file /etc/sysctl.conf. Doing that is highly recommended.
Ancient distributions might not have the sysctl program, but equivalent changes can be made by manipulating the /proc file system:
The remaining defaults are quite generously sized, and usually do not require changes.macOS
The recommended method for configuring shared memory in macOS is to create a file named /etc/sysctl.conf, containing variable assignments such as:
Note that in some macOS versions, all five shared-memory parameters must be set in /etc/sysctl.conf, else the values will be ignored.
Beware that recent releases of macOS ignore attempts to set SHMMAX to a value that isn't an exact multiple of 4096.
SHMALL is measured in 4 kB pages on this platform.
In older macOS versions, you will need to reboot to have changes in the shared memory parameters take effect. As of 10.5 it is possible to change all but SHMMNI on the fly, using sysctl. But it's still best to set up your preferred values via /etc/sysctl.conf, so that the values will be kept across reboots.
The file /etc/sysctl.conf is only honored in macOS 10.3.9 and later. If you are running a previous 10.3.x release, you must edit the file /etc/rc and change the values in the following commands:
Note that /etc/rc is usually overwritten by macOS system updates, so you should expect to have to redo these edits after each update.
In macOS 10.2 and earlier, instead edit these commands in the file /System/Library/StartupItems/SystemTuning/SystemTuning.Solaris 2.6 to 2.9 (Solaris 6 to Solaris 9)
The relevant settings can be changed in /etc/system, for example:
You need to reboot for the changes to take effect. See also http://sunsite.uakom.sk/sunworldonline/swol-09-1997/swol-09-insidesolaris.html for information on shared memory under older versions of Solaris.Solaris 2.10 (Solaris 10) and later OpenSolaris
In Solaris 10 and later, and OpenSolaris, the default shared memory and semaphore settings are good enough for most PostgreSQL applications. Solaris now defaults to a SHMMAXof one-quarter of system RAM. To further adjust this setting, use a project setting associated with the postgres user. For example, run the following as root:
This command adds the user.postgres project and sets the shared memory maximum for the postgres user to 8GB, and takes effect the next time that user logs in, or when you restart PostgreSQL (not reload). The above assumes that PostgreSQL is run by the postgres user in the postgres group. No server reboot is required.
Other recommended kernel setting changes for database servers which will have a large number of connections are:
Additionally, if you are running PostgreSQL inside a zone, you may need to raise the zone resource usage limits as well. See "Chapter2: Projects and Tasks" in the System Administrator's Guide for more information on projects and prctl.
If systemd is in use, some care must be taken that IPC resources (shared memory and semaphores) are not prematurely removed by the operating system. This is especially of concern when installing PostgreSQL from source. Users of distribution packages of PostgreSQL are less likely to be affected, as the postgres user is then normally created as a system user.
The setting RemoveIPC in logind.conf controls whether IPC objects are removed when a user fully logs out. System users are exempt. This setting defaults to on in stock systemd, but some operating system distributions default it to off.
A typical observed effect when this setting is on is that the semaphore objects used by a PostgreSQL server are removed at apparently random times, leading to the server crashing with log messages like
Different types of IPC objects (shared memory vs. semaphores, System V vs. POSIX) are treated slightly differently by systemd, so one might observe that some IPC resources are not removed in the same way as others. But it is not advisable to rely on these subtle differences.
A “user logging out” might happen as part of a maintenance job or manually when an administrator logs in as the postgres user or something similar, so it is hard to prevent in general.
What is a “system user” is determined at systemd compile time from the SYS_UID_MAX setting in /etc/login.defs.
Packaging and deployment scripts should be careful to create the postgres user as a system user by using useradd -r, adduser --system, or equivalent.
Alternatively, if the user account was created incorrectly or cannot be changed, it is recommended to set
in /etc/systemd/logind.conf or another appropriate configuration file.
At least one of these two things has to be ensured, or the PostgreSQL server will be very unreliable.
Unix-like operating systems enforce various kinds of resource limits that might interfere with the operation of your PostgreSQL server. Of particular importance are limits on the number of processes per user, the number of open files per process, and the amount of memory available to each process. Each of these have a “hard” and a “soft” limit. The soft limit is what actually counts but it can be changed by the user up to the hard limit. The hard limit can only be changed by the root user. The system call setrlimit is responsible for setting these parameters. The shell's built-in command ulimit (Bourne shells) or limit (csh) is used to control the resource limits from the command line. On BSD-derived systems the file /etc/login.conf controls the various resource limits set during login. See the operating system documentation for details. The relevant parameters are maxproc, openfiles, and datasize. For example:
(-cur is the soft limit. Append -max to set the hard limit.)
Kernels can also have system-wide limits on some resources.
On Linux /proc/sys/fs/file-max determines the maximum number of open files that the kernel will support. It can be changed by writing a different number into the file or by adding an assignment in /etc/sysctl.conf. The maximum limit of files per process is fixed at the time the kernel is compiled; see /usr/src/linux/Documentation/proc.txt for more information.
The PostgreSQL server uses one process per connection so you should provide for at least as many processes as allowed connections, in addition to what you need for the rest of your system. This is usually not a problem but if you run several servers on one machine things might get tight.
The factory default limit on open files is often set to “socially friendly” values that allow many users to coexist on a machine without using an inappropriate fraction of the system resources. If you run many servers on a machine this is perhaps what you want, but on dedicated servers you might want to raise this limit.
On the other side of the coin, some systems allow individual processes to open large numbers of files; if more than a few processes do so then the system-wide limit can easily be exceeded. If you find this happening, and you do not want to alter the system-wide limit, you can set PostgreSQL's max_files_per_process configuration parameter to limit the consumption of open files.
In Linux 2.4 and later, the default virtual memory behavior is not optimal for PostgreSQL. Because of the way that the kernel implements memory overcommit, the kernel might terminate the PostgreSQL postmaster (the master server process) if the memory demands of either PostgreSQL or another process cause the system to run out of virtual memory.
If this happens, you will see a kernel message that looks like this (consult your system documentation and configuration on where to look for such a message):
This indicates that the postgres process has been terminated due to memory pressure. Although existing database connections will continue to function normally, no new connections will be accepted. To recover, PostgreSQL will need to be restarted.
One way to avoid this problem is to run PostgreSQL on a machine where you can be sure that other processes will not run the machine out of memory. If memory is tight, increasing the swap space of the operating system can help avoid the problem, because the out-of-memory (OOM) killer is invoked only when physical memory and swap space are exhausted.
If PostgreSQL itself is the cause of the system running out of memory, you can avoid the problem by changing your configuration. In some cases, it may help to lower memory-related configuration parameters, particularly shared_buffers and work_mem. In other cases, the problem may be caused by allowing too many connections to the database server itself. In many cases, it may be better to reduce max_connections and instead make use of external connection-pooling software.
On Linux 2.6 and later, it is possible to modify the kernel's behavior so that it will not “overcommit” memory. Although this setting will not prevent the OOM killer from being invoked altogether, it will lower the chances significantly and will therefore lead to more robust system behavior. This is done by selecting strict overcommit mode via sysctl:
or placing an equivalent entry in /etc/sysctl.conf. You might also wish to modify the related setting vm.overcommit_ratio. For details see the kernel documentation file https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/vm/overcommit-accounting.
Another approach, which can be used with or without altering vm.overcommit_memory, is to set the process-specific OOM score adjustment value for the postmaster process to -1000, thereby guaranteeing it will not be targeted by the OOM killer. The simplest way to do this is to execute
in the postmaster's startup script just before invoking the postmaster. Note that this action must be done as root, or it will have no effect; so a root-owned startup script is the easiest place to do it. If you do this, you should also set these environment variables in the startup script before invoking the postmaster:
These settings will cause postmaster child processes to run with the normal OOM score adjustment of zero, so that the OOM killer can still target them at need. You could use some other value for PG_OOM_ADJUST_VALUE if you want the child processes to run with some other OOM score adjustment. (PG_OOM_ADJUST_VALUE can also be omitted, in which case it defaults to zero.) If you do not set PG_OOM_ADJUST_FILE, the child processes will run with the same OOM score adjustment as the postmaster, which is unwise since the whole point is to ensure that the postmaster has a preferential setting.
Older Linux kernels do not offer /proc/self/oom_score_adj, but may have a previous version of the same functionality called /proc/self/oom_adj. This works the same except the disable value is -17 not -1000.
Some vendors' Linux 2.4 kernels are reported to have early versions of the 2.6 overcommit sysctl parameter. However, setting vm.overcommit_memory to 2 on a 2.4 kernel that does not have the relevant code will make things worse, not better. It is recommended that you inspect the actual kernel source code (see the function vm_enough_memory in the file mm/mmap.c) to verify what is supported in your kernel before you try this in a 2.4 installation. The presence of the overcommit-accounting documentation file should not be taken as evidence that the feature is there. If in any doubt, consult a kernel expert or your kernel vendor.
Using huge pages reduces overhead when using large contiguous chunks of memory, as PostgreSQL does, particularly when using large values of shared_buffers. To use this feature in PostgreSQL you need a kernel with CONFIG_HUGETLBFS=y and CONFIG_HUGETLB_PAGE=y. You will also have to adjust the kernel setting vm.nr_hugepages. To estimate the number of huge pages needed, start PostgreSQL without huge pages enabled and check the postmaster's VmPeak value, as well as the system's huge page size, using the /proc file system. This might look like:
6490428 / 2048 gives approximately 3169.154, so in this example we need at least 3170 huge pages, which we can set with:
A larger setting would be appropriate if other programs on the machine also need huge pages. Don't forget to add this setting to /etc/sysctl.conf so that it will be reapplied after reboots.
Sometimes the kernel is not able to allocate the desired number of huge pages immediately, so it might be necessary to repeat the command or to reboot. (Immediately after a reboot, most of the machine's memory should be available to convert into huge pages.) To verify the huge page allocation situation, use:
It may also be necessary to give the database server's operating system user permission to use huge pages by setting vm.hugetlb_shm_group via sysctl, and/or give permission to lock memory with ulimit -l.
The default behavior for huge pages in PostgreSQL is to use them when possible and to fall back to normal pages when failing. To enforce the use of huge pages, you can set huge_pages to on in postgresql.conf. Note that with this setting PostgreSQL will fail to start if not enough huge pages are available.
For a detailed description of the Linux huge pages feature have a look at https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/vm/hugetlbpage.txt.
It is possible to use SSH to encrypt the network connection between clients and a PostgreSQL server. Done properly, this provides an adequately secure network connection, even for non-SSL-capable clients.
First make sure that an SSH server is running properly on the same machine as the PostgreSQL server and that you can log in using ssh as some user. Then you can establish a secure tunnel with a command like this from the client machine:
The first number in the -L argument, 63333, is the port number of your end of the tunnel; it can be any unused port. (IANA reserves ports 49152 through 65535 for private use.) The second number, 5432, is the remote end of the tunnel: the port number your server is using. The name or IP address between the port numbers is the host with the database server you are going to connect to, as seen from the host you are logging in to, which is foo.com in this example. In order to connect to the database server using this tunnel, you connect to port 63333 on the local machine:
To the database server it will then look as though you are really user joe on host foo.com connecting to localhost in that context, and it will use whatever authentication procedure was configured for connections from this user and host. Note that the server will not think the connection is SSL-encrypted, since in fact it is not encrypted between the SSH server and the PostgreSQL server. This should not pose any extra security risk as long as they are on the same machine.
In order for the tunnel setup to succeed you must be allowed to connect via ssh as joe@foo.com, just as if you had attempted to use ssh to create a terminal session.
You could also have set up the port forwarding as
but then the database server will see the connection as coming in on its foo.com interface, which is not opened by the default setting listen_addresses = 'localhost'. This is usually not what you want.
If you have to “hop” to the database server via some login host, one possible setup could look like this:
Note that this way the connection from shell.foo.com to db.foo.com will not be encrypted by the SSH tunnel. SSH offers quite a few configuration possibilities when the network is restricted in various ways. Please refer to the SSH documentation for details.
Several other applications exist that can provide secure tunnels using a procedure similar in concept to the one just described.
SHMMAX
Maximum size of shared memory segment (bytes)
at least 1kB, but the default is usually much higher
SHMMIN
Minimum size of shared memory segment (bytes)
1
SHMALL
Total amount of shared memory available (bytes or pages)
same as SHMMAX if bytes, or ceil(SHMMAX/PAGE_SIZE) if pages, plus room for other applications
SHMSEG
Maximum number of shared memory segments per process
only 1 segment is needed, but the default is much higher
SHMMNI
Maximum number of shared memory segments system-wide
like SHMSEG plus room for other applications
SEMMNI
Maximum number of semaphore identifiers (i.e., sets)
at least ceil((max_connections + autovacuum_max_workers + max_worker_processes + 5) / 16) plus room for other applications
SEMMNS
Maximum number of semaphores system-wide
ceil((max_connections + autovacuum_max_workers + max_worker_processes + 5) / 16) * 17 plus room for other applications
SEMMSL
Maximum number of semaphores per set
at least 17
SEMMAP
Number of entries in semaphore map
see text
SEMVMX
Maximum value of semaphore
at least 1000 (The default is often 32767; do not change unless necessary)
PostgreSQL offers encryption at several levels, and provides flexibility in protecting data from disclosure due to database server theft, unscrupulous administrators, and insecure networks. Encryption might also be required to secure sensitive data such as medical records or financial transactions.
Database user passwords are stored as hashes (determined by the setting password_encryption), so the administrator cannot determine the actual password assigned to the user. If SCRAM or MD5 encryption is used for client authentication, the unencrypted password is never even temporarily present on the server because the client encrypts it before being sent across the network. SCRAM is preferred, because it is an Internet standard and is more secure than the PostgreSQL-specific MD5 authentication protocol.
The pgcrypto module allows certain fields to be stored encrypted. This is useful if only some of the data is sensitive. The client supplies the decryption key and the data is decrypted on the server and then sent to the client.
The decrypted data and the decryption key are present on the server for a brief time while it is being decrypted and communicated between the client and server. This presents a brief moment where the data and keys can be intercepted by someone with complete access to the database server, such as the system administrator.
Storage encryption can be performed at the file system level or the block level. Linux file system encryption options include eCryptfs and EncFS, while FreeBSD uses PEFS. Block level or full disk encryption options include dm-crypt + LUKS on Linux and GEOM modules geli and gbde on FreeBSD. Many other operating systems support this functionality, including Windows.
This mechanism prevents unencrypted data from being read from the drives if the drives or the entire computer is stolen. This does not protect against attacks while the file system is mounted, because when mounted, the operating system provides an unencrypted view of the data. However, to mount the file system, you need some way for the encryption key to be passed to the operating system, and sometimes the key is stored somewhere on the host that mounts the disk.
SSL connections encrypt all data sent across the network: the password, the queries, and the data returned. The pg_hba.conf file allows administrators to specify which hosts can use non-encrypted connections (host) and which require SSL-encrypted connections (hostssl). Also, clients can specify that they connect to servers only via SSL.
GSSAPI-encrypted connections encrypt all data sent across the network, including queries and data returned. (No password is sent across the network.) The pg_hba.conf file allows administrators to specify which hosts can use non-encrypted connections (host) and which require GSSAPI-encrypted connections (hostgssenc). Also, clients can specify that they connect to servers only on GSSAPI-encrypted connections (gssencmode=require).
Stunnel or SSH can also be used to encrypt transmissions.
It is possible for both the client and server to provide SSL certificates to each other. It takes some extra configuration on each side, but this provides stronger verification of identity than the mere use of passwords. It prevents a computer from pretending to be the server just long enough to read the password sent by the client. It also helps prevent “man in the middle” attacks where a computer between the client and server pretends to be the server and reads and passes all data between the client and server.
If the system administrator for the server's machine cannot be trusted, it is necessary for the client to encrypt the data; this way, unencrypted data never appears on the database server. Data is encrypted on the client before being sent to the server, and database results have to be decrypted on the client before being used.