1Operations management

• 1.1Building the Database Server

  Go deep on the encryption, authentication, and audit foundations laid down when building a server: SSL communication and data encryption with pgcrypto, checking encryption status with pg_stat_ssl, client authentication via SCRAM-SHA-256, the audit-log core log_statement plus the activity-statistics settings track_functions, track_activities, pinning parameters per user/database with ALTER ROLE/ALTER DATABASE, checksum-enabled initialization with initdb --data-checksums, and key cluster directories pg_tblspc, pg_wal, pg_stat_tmp.

• 1.2Operational Management Commands

  Go deep on the backup/recovery and daily-maintenance command set: non-exclusive backups, PITR, and WAL mechanics; pg_dump, pg_dumpall, pg_basebackup; pg_start_backup()/pg_stop_backup(), valid in versions 12-14; VACUUM, vacuumdb, ANALYZE, CLUSTER, REINDEX, CHECKPOINT; autovacuum internals; bloat investigation with pgstattuple; pg_cancel_backend()/pg_reload_conf(); parallelism via max_parallel_workers; and the monitoring role pg_monitor.

• 1.3Database Structure

  Go deep on the cluster's physical layout and process internals: physical file placement and the process architecture (postmaster, backend processes, background processes), TOAST for storing oversized values out-of-line, FILLFACTOR for controlling a table's reserved free space, autovacuum internals, and foreign data access via postgres_fdw, file_fdw, CREATE SERVER, USER MAPPING, FOREIGN TABLE.

• 1.4Replication Operations

  Go deep on building and monitoring streaming and logical replication: streaming setup via wal_level, max_wal_senders, synchronous_standby_names, synchronous_commit, hot_standby_feedback; logical replication's CREATE/ALTER/DROP PUBLICATION and SUBSCRIPTION; the monitoring views pg_stat_replication and pg_stat_wal_receiver; the sender/receiver processes walsender/walreceiver; and the dedicated receiving tool pg_receivewal.