PostgreSQL Unconference in Tokyo

Last Saturday, we, Japan PostgreSQL Users Group, had the first PostgreSQL "Unconference" in Tokyo.

The event had about 40 participants and 17 talks in 4 hours, and it was successfully run by the participants.

As you may know, "conference" requires its host to arrange the program *much before* the event starts. As opposed to that, "unconference" doesn't.

"Unconference" is filled with many short talks, typically 10 to 20 minute ones, which need to be arranged at beginning of the event, and running multiple (two or more) sessions at the same time to give a chance to participants to find a topic they are interested in.

What we did and what we saw there.

So, I started the event with saying this:

"Welcome to *the most unprepared event* we've ever had! :) Now is the time to start arranging our program. Please write down the title of your talk on the post-it note, and put it on the white board."

Announcing pg_part extension, a table partitioning utility for PostgreSQL

I'm pleased to announce my first PostgreSQL extension, pg_part extension, to take advantage of table (range) partitioning on PostgreSQL.

• uptimejp/pg_part
  https://github.com/uptimejp/pg_part

In the PostgreSQL world, the table (range) partitioning (a.k.a. Constraint Exclusion) is one of the advantages of PostgreSQL for analytical workloads, but using lots of DDL commands for this purpose still requires some patience.

• PostgreSQL: Documentation: 9.1: Partitioning
  http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.1/static/ddl-partitioning.html

This extension provies several SQL functions to allow users manipulating table partitioning on PostgreSQL without executing DDL commands directly. So, pg_part would make it easier to take advantages of the PostgreSQL table partitioning.

pgstatview: Visualize your PostgreSQL in a minute

As you all may know, understanding activities inside database management system is one of the important, but difficult and painful tasks for DBAs, not only for newbies, but also experienced DBAs. I saw many DBAs struggling with PostgreSQL because of such difficulties.

Today, I'd like to introduce a brand-new tool, pgstatview.

• pgstatview (pre-alpha)
  http://www2.uptimeforce.com/pgstatview/

pgstatview, a new visualization tool for PostgreSQL, has been developed to help DBAs and make it easier to understand what is actually going on inside PostgreSQL.

pgstatview allows DBA to visualize database activities with using several metrics both inside and outside PostgreSQL: transaction commit/rollbacks, tuple inserts/updates/deletes, cache hit ratio, bgwriter writes, WAL writes, and so on. You can see some sample reports here: Sample 1, Sample 2.

pgstatview has its unique advantages.

Japan PostgreSQL Users Group received Achievement Award 2011 from DBSJ

Today, Japan PostgreSQL Users Group (JPUG) has been awarded Achievement Award 2011 from the Database Society of Japan (DBSJ), the largest (umbrella) database research community in Japan, because of its activities on database research, educating engineers and promoting database technology in Japan.

This is actually impressive thing in the JPUG history, and in my mind. I really appreciate many people, not only in Japan, but also around the world, who were/are working on PostgreSQL and relating activities. Thank you so much.

I, as chairperson of the board of JPUG directors, had a short talk, "PostgreSQL and Communities", at the ceremony today.

PostgreSQL Conference 2012 on February 24 in Japan

Japan PostgreSQL Users Group will be having an annual 1day technical conference, PostgreSQL Conference 2012, on February 24 in Tokyo. There will be two keynote sessions and 13 sessions on PostgreSQL.
(The photo was taken by @koyhoge at PostgreSQL Conference 2011)

• PostgreSQL Conference 2012 - NPO法人 日本PostgreSQLユーザ http://www.postgresql.jp/events/pgcon2012/ (Google translated)