DEV Community: steila

How to use Slack for Beginners.

steila — Wed, 07 Aug 2024 04:10:03 +0000

Introduction

Do you suddenly have to use a new, shiny tool called Slack? Are you confused about how to navigate? Read on, this write-up is for you.

Slack is an application used in remote collaboration just like WhatsApp, but unlike WhatsApp, it is rich with features that make remote engagement easy. It is one of the most widely used remote work tools. Slack can be used on mobile and systems. It also supports Windows and Linux Operating systems.

In this user guide, you will delve into the following.

System requirements and Installation.
Navigating through Slack.
Conclusion.

System Requirements

To install Slack, you must have any of the following.

Phones running Android 11 or above and iOS 16 or above.
Windows, Mac, or Linux Operating system.
Web Browsers like Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Microsoft Edge.

Installation

- For mobile download.

Visit Play Store or select the appropriate app store for your OS.
Search for slack.
Select the app with the below icon.
Click on install.
Open after installation.

- For system download, do the following;

Visit the official slack website.
Click on DOWNLOAD (64-BIT) or select the appropriate OS for your system.
From your file explorer, Open the download folder.
Select slack and right-click to open.
Click on run to install.
The picture below will show on your screen after a successful installation.

- To access Slack on Web browsers, open the invitation link given to you by your organization.

Navigating through Slack

Workspaces

Workspaces are a dedicated organization workbook. It is where a team collaborates, to join a workspace, you have to receive an invitation link from the organization.

Creating a Workspace.

To create a new workspace, do the following;

In your newly downloaded Slack, click on create a new Workspace, this will redirect you to Chrome if you are using the App.
Input your Email address and click on continue.
Verify your email address by putting in your confirmation code, which you will receive in your mailbox.
Set your company name in the next window and click next.
Customize your workspace by adding your name and uploading a profile picture, click on next.
Copy the invite link to share this workspace with others and click on skip this step.
When prompted on what your team is working on, write any random name that comes to mind, this will become the name of a channel, then click on next.
Finally, select start with free as a final step.
You will be automatically redirected to the desktop application.

Join a Workspace

Click on the invitation link sent to you by the organization, this will redirect you to a web browser.
You will be prompted to enter your email address,and a name which will be used to create your account.
Open your mailbox to check the instructions sent to you by slack and select join now, you will be redirected to a web browser.
Input the confirmation code sent to your mailbox by the Slack team.
You will be signed in to the workspace.

Signing in to another Workspace.

To sign in to another Workspace, do the following;

Click on your Workspace icon in the top left corner with your company logo, then select Add a new Workspace.
Click sign in to another workspace.
Enter the Workspace URL you received from the organization.
This will take you to the Workspace.

Remove a Workspace.

Click the dropdown close to the Workspace name, then select Sign out.

Channels

Channels are dedicated groups for a particular topic.

Join a channel.

Click the bold channel dropdown and select the channel you want to join.

Create a channel.

Create a channel by clicking on the Add Channels Icon or;
Click the bold plus(+) button on the home tab and select channels to create a channel.

Public and private channels.

Private Channels require an invitation by an admin.
Public channels can be joined by searching the channel.

Leave a channel.

Right-click on the channel, then select Leave Channel.

Huddles

Huddles are Video Meetings in Slack, like Google or Zoom Meetings.

Mute the mic.
Enable video.
Share your screen.
Send a reaction.
Add people to the Huddle.
Leave the Huddle.
Start a huddle.
Join a Huddle.

Direct Messages

Direct Messages are ways to chat privately with an Individual.

Select the Direct Messages tab.
Start a direct message by tagging the person with the @ sign.
Manage direct messages.

Drafts and sent

Drafts and sent are used to schedule messages for later posting.

Select the Drafts and sent tab.
Draft a message.
Schedule a message.
View sent messages.

Activity

The Activity tab helps to see every conversation one is engaged in without going through the channels sequentially. By clicking on any of the tabs, one can retrace conversations quickly.

Mentions

Mentions are places where you were directly tagged, it makes it easier to know who talked about you. You can be mentioned collectively as a channel using @channel, or personally via your username using @username. To see the mentions tab, Click on the Activity Icon.

Name Icon

Update your profile by clicking the image icon at the down left corner, and selecting the profile tab.

Threads

Threads are extended conversations, A thread is created when a reply is made to a post in a channel. The threads tabs help to organize your discussion seamlessly.

Conclusion

Slack is an application rich with features that make collaboration easy.
In this user guide, you covered the following;

System requirements and Installation.
Navigating through Slack.
Conclusion.

Enjoyed my blog? Do give me a thumbs up.

A Developer's journey with Django crispy forms.

steila — Sat, 07 Oct 2023 07:33:25 +0000

Introduction

Django, a powerful web framework, simplifies web development tasks. However, the default rendering of forms often lacks the visual appeal desired for a seamless user experience. In my journey with Django, I encountered this challenge, especially as I had limited CSS skills then. In this article, I will share how I transformed my basic Django forms into aesthetically pleasing ones using Django Crispy Forms.

Django crispy forms is a third party package, that helps one to create better Django form. To use it, you need to install the package using pip install django-crispy-forms and then add crispy-forms to your installed apps.

The entire project I built is at this repository, https://github.com/Chidera6/diary_app.
Here are some of my files.

{% extends "dia/base_category.html" %}
{% block title %}Register{% endblock %}
{% block content %}
<div class="container h-100">
    <div class="row h-100 justify-content-center align-items-center">
        <div class="col-10 col-md-8 col-lg-6">       
            <div class="container py-5">
                <h1>Register</h1>
                <form method="POST">
                    {% csrf_token %}
                    {{ register_form}}                    
                    <button class="btn btn-primary" type="submit">Register</button>
                </form>
                <p class="text-center">If you already have an account, <a href="/login">login</a> instead.</p>
            </div>
        </div>
    </div>
{% endblock %}

views.py

def register_request(request):
    if request.method == "POST":
        form = NewUserForm(request.POST)
        if form.is_valid():
            user = form.save()
            login(request, user)
            return redirect("dia:home")
        messages.error(request,"Unsuccessful registration. Invalid information.")
    form = NewUserForm()
    return render (request,"dia/register.html", context={"register_form":form})

urls.py

path("register/",views.register_request,name='register')

Here is what my form looked like initially.

By loading the crispy form tag, and applying crispy to my register form just as shown in this code below, my form had a whole new look.
register.html modified.

{% extends "dia/base_category.html" %}
{% block title %}Register{% endblock %}
{% block content %}
<div class="container h-100">
    <div class="row h-100 justify-content-center align-items-center">
        <div class="col-10 col-md-8 col-lg-6">
            {% load crispy_forms_tags %}         
            <div class="container py-5">
                <h1>Register</h1>
                <form method="POST">
                    {% csrf_token %}
                    {{ register_form|crispy }}                    
                    <button class="btn btn-primary" type="submit">Register</button>
                </form>
                <p class="text-center">If you already have an account, <a href="/login">login</a> instead.</p>
            </div>
        </div>
    </div>
{% endblock %}

Here is my form's final look.

Conclusion
Django crispy form package is very beginner-friendly, yet very powerful in transforming forms. It contains other helper function that helps in form validations.

References
Django crispy forms documentation
Github Repository: Diary app.

Setting Up Wagtail for Development on Windows: A Step-by-Step Guide

steila — Fri, 06 Oct 2023 10:42:03 +0000

Hello! I'm currently an Outreachy applicant in the contribution stage. I'm a Django developer excited about Wagtail projects. In this article, I'll show you how to set up Wagtail on your Windows machine, sharing what I've learned so far.

Prerequisites
Before starting, make sure your Windows system has the following installed:

Git installed.
Python installed.
node version 18.0.0 installed.

Windows Subsystem for Linux(WSL) Installation Guide.

On your Windows machine, do the following;

Open settings > apps> > optional features > more Windows features >.
Enable WSL and reboot your system.
Visit the Microsoft store. Install Ubuntu and follow the prompts, take note of the password requested as you will use it quite often.

Wagtail Installation Guide.

Fork the repository by clicking on this link.
From your Ubuntu terminal, create a directory and enter into that directory, create a virtual environment and activate it.
```
mkdir wagtail && cd wagtail
python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
```
Copy the URL of your fork of the repository, just like I did in the picture below.

Clone your copy of the repository.

git clone https://github.com/Chidera6/wagtail.git #[YOUR_FORKED_REPO_URL]
cd wagtail

Install the necessary dependencies.
```
pip install -e ."[testing,docs]" -U
```
Install the tool chain for building static assets and compile the assets.
```
npm ci
npm run build
```

Run migrations for the test models using the code below.

django-admin makemigrations --settings=wagtail.test.settings

Start the server with the code below. You should see this file- ui_tests.db in /wagtail/test/, if everything went well.

export DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=wagtail.test.settings_ui
./wagtail/test/manage.py migrate #Create the tables.
./wagtail/test/manage.py createcachetable #create a cache table
./wagtail/test/manage.py runserver 0:8000 #starts the server

In another terminal, and with your virtual environment activated, compile the UI component.
```
npm run storybook
```
Now, when you visit the URL http://localhost:8000 in your browser, you should see the output below indicating that the server is running successfully.

Note

The official Wagtail documentation offers different setup guides based on your goals.
If this guide did not capture what you wanted, you could look it up for clarity.

Feedback and Corrections
I aim for accuracy in this guide. If you find any errors or have suggestions for improvement, please get in touch with me at onumajurubenedicta@gmail.com.

Conclusion
Congratulations! You've successfully enabled Wagtail for development on your Windows OS. Happy coding!

References
Wagtail documentation
Wagtail repository

AgensGraph, AgensBrowser, What really are they?

steila — Tue, 15 Aug 2023 15:46:05 +0000

AgensGraph
AgensGraph is a database management system that supports both relational databases and graph databases.
Its features include.

Supports ANSI SQL and Cypher queries.
Enables hybrid queries in the same query.
Contains a visualization for viewing of graph queries.

AgensBrowser
AgensBrowser is a user interface which allows users to manage AgensGraph on a web browser.
Its features include.

Support for RESTful-API.
Creating and deleting labels.
Input, execution, storage of Cypher and ANSI-SQL.
Project Load/Save/Delete.

References
https://bitnine.net/
https://bitnine.net/agensgraph/

Step-by-step guide on installing AgensBrowser on Windows.

steila — Mon, 14 Aug 2023 08:34:26 +0000

Introduction
AgensBrowser is a user interface which allows users to manage AgensGraph on a web browser. In this tutorial, you will install AgensBrowser on your Windows OS.

Prerequisites.
Make sure you have done the following,

Installed Java 1.8.
Installed AgensGraph or use this tutorial.
Installed Visual Studio code or any editor of choice.

AgensBrowser Installation Guide.

Visit the official Window's installation guide here and fill in your details, so you can receive the download link in your mailbox.
Click on the download button in the mail, this will take you to a page where you can download the .zip file.
Download the zip file and extract its contents to a folder.
Open this folder with your editor.
Create a new file known as agensbrowser.BAT, add the following lines below to that file.
```
java -jar agens-browser-web-1.0.jar --spring.config.name=agens-browser.config
```
Open the agens-browser.config.yml file, view its configuration, be sure that the settings there correspond to the AgensGraph you installed earlier.
From the directory where this file is located, run this file as an executable to launch the AgensBrowser by using this command below.

./agensbrowser.BAT
Visit this URL http://localhost:8085/index.html on your browser to view AgensBrowser on your screen, This will output the AgensBrowser management console on the screen as seen below, where one can use its rich features such as Rest API Integration to monitor a database.

Conclusion
AgensBrowser is a management tool for AgensGraph, it provides various features such as Rest API Integration and for easy monitoring and management.

Step-by-step guide on installing AgensBrowser using a Docker image.

steila — Fri, 11 Aug 2023 14:15:56 +0000

Introduction.
AgensBrowser is a user interface which allows users to manage AgensGraph on a web browser. In this tutorial, you will install AgensBrowser using a docker image.

Prerequisites.
Before you proceed to the installation guide, make sure you have done the following,

Installed Ubuntu.
Installed AgensGraph.
Installed Docker or use this tutorial.

Installation Guide.

Download the docker image by running the command below,

docker pull bitnine/agensbrowser
Create a docker volume where data can be persisted by running the command below.

docker volume create --name myvolume

Start the Container in different modes of your choice by running the command below.

(Temporary mode)
$ docker run -it bitnine/agensbrowser:v2.1.1 bash
(Save mode)
$ docker run -it -v myvolume:/home/agens/AgensGraph/data 
bitnine/agensbrowser:v2.1.1 bash

Enter into the directory where AgensBrowser was installed.

cd /home/agens/AgensBrowser
Launch AgensBrowser by running the command below /agensbrowser.sh.
Visit this URL http://localhost:8085/index.html on the web browser to manage your AgensGraph database.
Stop the server by using the exit command.

Conclusion
AgensBrowser is a management tool for AgensGraph, it provides various features such as Rest API Integration, and it's quite useful for easy monitoring and management of AgensGraph.

References
https://hub.docker.com/r/bitnine/agensbrowser
https://hub.docker.com/r/bitnine/agensgraph

Step-by-step guide on installing AgensGraph on Windows.

steila — Mon, 31 Jul 2023 09:25:10 +0000

Introduction

AgensGraph is a database management system that supports both relational databases and graph databases. The following lines, from the official documentation, capture it succinctly.

AgensGraph is a robust, fully-featured enterprise graph database management system based on the PostgreSQL. It is optimized for handling connected data and provides plenty of powerful features essential to the enterprise environment including ACID transactions, multi-version concurrency control, stored procedure, triggers, constraints, monitoring and a flexible data model (JSON).

Installation Guide.

Visit the official Window's installation guide here and fill in your details, so you can receive the download link in your mailbox.
Click on the download button in the mail, this will take you to a page where you can download the .exe file.
Open the installation file as an administrator. This will prompt the setup wizard to start the installation process.
Accept the licence agreement to proceed.
Specify the installation directory to proceed, you can leave it at default.
Select the components you want to install, you can leave it at default to proceed.
After reviewing the installation summary and ensuring that all information are satisfactory, you can proceed, which will prompt the setup to initiate the installation process.
Setup will output this on the screen when the installation process is complete.
To open your newly installed database, click on the part marked in the picture below, which will take you to an SQL shell where you can start creating databases and making queries.

References
https://bitnine.net/agensgraph-2-1-0-community-windows/

Enjoyed this blog? Please do give me a like or a follow.

Step-by-step guide on installing Postgres Enterprise Server Via a Linux distro (Ubuntu).

steila — Sun, 30 Jul 2023 20:57:24 +0000

Introduction
Postgres Enterprise Manager (PEM) is a monitoring tool used for managing multiple instances of Postgres databases. It offers the flexibility of installation on Windows either through a Linux distribution like Ubuntu or directly as an executor. In this tutorial, I will work you through installing it via a Linux distro (Ubuntu 22.04) on Windows.

WSL Installation.
On your Windows machine, do the following;

Open settings > apps> optional features > more windows features > enable WSL.
This would prompt you to reboot your system.
Visit the Microsoft store, install Ubuntu 22.04 and follow the prompts.

EDB Advanced Server Installation Guide

Visit the EDB repositories.
Create an account.
Click on Repo access.
Select access EDB Repos 2.0.
Select platform Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (Jammy) x86_64, and software EDB Postgres Advanced Server, so its installation instructions can be displayed.

Configure the repository by running this command on your Ubuntu.

curl -1sLf 'https://downloads.enterprisedb.com/p7lPKTUSJ8jNZlqUAlrQuxMKfk6X2Ya6/enterprise/setup.deb.sh' | sudo -E bash

Install the EDB Advanced server by running this command.
```
sudo apt-get -y install edb-as15-server
```
You will see this output below
To confirm your installation, you can start the server by running this command below or any command displayed after the installation process.
```
/usr/lib/edb-as/15/bin/pg_ctl -D /var/lib/edb-as/15/main -l logfile start
```

PEM Server Installation Guide.

Visit the EDB repositories again.
Select platform as Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (Jammy) x86_64, and software EDB Postgres Enterprise Manager, so its installation instructions can be displayed.

Configure the repository by running this command on your Ubuntu.

curl -1sLf 'https://downloads.enterprisedb.com/p7lPKTUSJ8jNZlqUAlrQuxMKfk6X2Ya6/enterprise/setup.deb.sh' | sudo -E bash

Install the PEM server by running this command.
```
sudo apt-get -y install edb-pem
```
Configure the PEM server by running this code, it will ask you for series of information, be sure to fill them.
```
/usr/edb/pem/bin/configure-pem-server.sh
```
After a successful configuration, this will be outputted to the screen.
```
https://<ip_address_of_PEM_server>:8443/pem
```
Visit the URL above in your browser.

References.
https://www.enterprisedb.com/docs/pem/latest/installing/linux_x86_64/pem_ubuntu_22/
https://www.postgresql.org/download/
https://www.postgresql.org/download/linux/ubuntu/
https://www.enterprisedb.com/docs/epas/latest/installing/
https://www.enterprisedb.com/docs/pem/latest/managing_database_server/#modifying-the-pg_hbaconf-file

Step-by-step guide on installing pgAmin from source code on windows and configuring it for development.

steila — Sun, 30 Jul 2023 06:34:54 +0000

Introduction.

pgAdmin is a management tool for PostgreSQL and EDB Postgres advanced server, in this blog post, You will install it from source code in your Windows machine. According to the official GitHub repo,

pgAdmin 4 is written as a web application in Python, using jQuery and Bootstrap for the client side processing and UI. On the server side, Flask is being utilised.

Pre-requisites.

You need to install the tools below.

Python.
node.js.
yarn through this tutorial.

Installation Guide.

Create a directory in any terminal of choice, I will be using gitbash for this tutorial.
```
mkdir pgadmin && cd pgadmin
```
Clone the repository from GitHub by running the command below.
```
git clone https://github.com/pgadmin-org/pgadmin4.git
```
This will successfully install it.

Building the Runtime for the frontend.

To build the runtime for the frontend, enter into the directory /pgadmin4/runtime, create a new file called dev_config.json copy the contents of the file dev_config.json.in into this file. Inside the dev_config.jsonfile, edit the python path to the actual path to the python.exe in your machine.
Run the command yarn install.
Execute the runtime by running this command.
```
node_modules/nw/nwjs/nw
```
This will start the pgAdmin.

Configuring the Python Environment for the Backend.

To configure the python environment, from the pgadmin directory, create a virtual environment and activate this environment by running this command.
```
cd ..
python -m virtualenv penv # creates a virtual environment
source penv/Scripts/activate #activates the virtual environment
```
Upgrade to the latest version of pip if you are not using one already, as pgAdmin requires the latest version via this command below.
```
pip install --upgrade pip
```
Add the part to your Postgres bin directory to your environment variables by running this command, this is necessary so pg-config can be found for building psycopg3.
```
export PATH="$PATH:/c/Program Files/PostgreSQL/15/bin"
```
This path, is the path to the PostgreSQL 15 I installed via the Windows installer. You can replace 15 with any version that you have.
Install the dependencies by running this command.
```
pip install -r requirements.txt
```
Start the server by running the command below.
```
python pgAdmin.py
```
Finally, this Starting pgAdmin 4. Please navigate to http://127.0.0.1:5050 in your browser. will be seen on the terminal, which shows the server has started Happy coding.

References
https://github.com/pgadmin-org/pgadmin4
Please do give me a like and a follow if you enjoyed this blogpost.

Postgres Enterprise Manager and its Utilities.

steila — Sat, 15 Jul 2023 20:13:18 +0000

Postgres Enterprise Manager (PEM) is a monitoring tool used for managing multiple instances of Postgres databases. In this Article, I will list out various instances where it is quite useful.

It can monitor multiple instances of Postgres in one server.
It provides a graphical web interface where one can perform all database management activities, which makes managing instances easy.
PEM contains an integrated SQL environment which is quite useful in writing raw SQL queries.
PEM provides an alert management system.
It also boasts of REST APIs which can easily be integrated in an application obtaining monitored data via this route.
PEM supports different operating systems.

Conclusion.
PEM as a tool for managing databases comes with so many advantages.
References

https://www.enterprisedb.com/docs/pem/latest/monitoring_performance/

Step-by-step guide on installing Postgres Enterprise Manager for windows.

steila — Sat, 15 Jul 2023 16:08:01 +0000

Introduction

Postgres Enterprise Manager (PEM) is a monitoring tool used for managing multiple instances of Postgres databases. It offers the flexibility of installation on Windows either through a Linux distribution like Ubuntu or directly as an executor.

Installation Guide.
There are different options for installing the PEM server. In this article, we will focus on installing the PEM server via the Stack Builder after installing EDB Postgres Advanced Server. This installation can also be done through the stack builder utility of PostgreSQL. The EDB extended advanced server will serve as the Postgres instance we will be monitoring.

Before the Installation guide, you need to know the following.

The PEM Server requires a backend Postgres instance that it will use to store monitored data.
This database can be EDB advanced server or PostgreSQL with a database known as PEM inside of it.
PEM can use an existing Postgres in your local machine, or you will be prompted to install a new one as the backend database.
The PEM HTTPD may or may not be in the same machine as the host of PEM server.
The PEM Agent can remotely manage a host, it must not be in the same machine as the host.
Visit this blog post for further reading.

EDB Postgres Advanced Server Installation Guide.

Begin by creating an account on EnterpriseDB website.
Navigate to the installation page and select the first option, EDB Postgres Advanced Server, choose Windows installer as can be seen in the image below.
This will either start the installation automatically or provide you with a link to click on.
Right-click on the downloaded file and select Run as administrator to initiate the installation.
The installation wizard will appear. Click "Next" to proceed.
Accept the licence agreement and click "next" to proceed.
Choose the installation directory or keep the default setting, then click "Next".
Select the components to install (the default selection is fine) and click "Next".
Specify the data directory or stick with the default setting, and click "Next".
Here you will be presented with two options as seen in the picture below. Click on next after selecting an option.
Set a password for the database superuser and remember it for future use.
Specify the port number and the locale, (you can stick with the defaults).
Select the type of server, this helps in determining the amount of system resources that will be used, I left mine at development.
Select the type of workload, again I left mine at default.
Review the pre-installation summary and click "Next" to start the installation.
Once the setup is complete, you'll see the installation summary as shown in the screen below. Leave it at the default setting to proceed with using the Stack Builder utility for additional downloads.

PEM HTTPD, PEM Server and PEM Agent installation Guide

Select EDB Advanced Server as the software you're installing. Ensure you have an internet connection.
Select the applications you want to install, such as pgAdmin, PEM Agent v9.2.2-1 and PEM server 9.2.2-1.
Review your selections and click "Next". Specify the download directory (you can keep the default).
.
The download process will begin. Once completed, click "Next" to start the installation.
During installation, choose your preferred language (English, for example).
Follow the installation steps for each selected application, such as pgAdmin.
Return to the Stack Builder and click "Next" to proceed with the installation of PEM-HTTPD.
Specify the installation directory for PEM-HTTPD and click "Next".
Configure the port for Apache (you can keep the default) and click "Next".
The installation process will begin. Once finished, click "Finish".
Go back to the Stack Builder, click "Next", and install the PEM Agent.
Accept the agreement and choose the installation directory for the PEM Agent.
If a missing dependency is detected, click "Next" to install PostgreSQL.
Go back to stack builder and click on next, provide the password for the PEM Agent (your (system)HP user's password) and click "Next".
Choose the network address (default is fine) and specify the agent description.
Click "Next" to start the installation.
After the installation, an alert will confirm that the PEM server has been configured with the PEM Agent.
Click "Finish" and return to the Stack Builder. Click "Finish" again.
To confirm the installation, open your Chrome browser and enter and visit this URL-https://ip_address_of_pem_host:8443/pem. Select "Advanced" to proceed. This will take a while and will output the image below on the screen.
To know your IP address, open the command prompt and type this ipconfig /all, copy the ipv4 address and use it appropriately in the URL above.
You can skip the last step by clicking on start > select Postgres Enterprise Manager > PEM web client to open PEM in the browser.

Conclusion.
Postgres Enterprise Manager (PEM) is a powerful tool designed for monitoring multiple instances of Postgres. The installation guide outlined the step-by-step process to install PEM, including the installation of EDB Postgres Advanced Server (as the server you will be monitoring), PEM HTTPD, PEM Server with PostgreSQL as the backend database and PEM Agent all on the same host. For an installation guide on how to install these components separately on different hosts, please visit the EDB official documentation.

References
https://www.enterprisedb.com/docs/pem/latest/installing/
https://www.enterprisedb.com/docs/pem/latest/installing/windows/

Please do give me a like and a follow if you enjoyed this post.

Postgres Enterprise Manager(PEM): A quick overview.

steila — Fri, 14 Jul 2023 14:16:47 +0000

Introduction

Server monitoring is done to gain insight on activities of users of a platform. One of such tools used in achieving this is the Postgres Enterprise Manager. Postgres Enterprise Manager(PEM) is used in monitoring instances of PostgreSQL and EDB Postgres Advanced server. EDB Advanced server was built on Postgres but with extended features such as enhanced SQL capabilities and database administration. When I talk of Postgres in subsequent paragraphs, I technically refer to these two.

PEM can monitor the following.

A Host which is a server (physical or virtual) running an instance of Postgres or, in my case, my local machine with Postgres installed inside.
Database server, an instance of Postgres running on a host or several Hosts, again in my case my downloaded Postgres.
Databases created inside the Postgres installed in my machine or in the Postgres Instance running on a Physical or Virtual server. PEM have support for different operating systems and can be installed in a different number of ways.

PEM COMPONENTS AND ARCHITECTURE.

PEM Server: This is made up of an instance of Postgres, a database (known as PEM) which is used for storing monitored data and then an instance of Apache web server(HTTPD) that enables us to view everything on a browser.

PEM Agent: The PEM Agent executes tasks and is responsible for gathering information from the host (Virtual server or, in my case, my operating system) and the instances of Postgres being monitored. An agent can monitor numerous Postgres instances and their bound host, whether the PEM Agent was installed in the same server as the host was or a remote host. The agent can also be installed in a different location from the PEM Server. The agent collects different information from the monitored server and transmits it to the PEM server to be stored.

PEM Web Client: This is a browser based console that connects to the PEM Server. It provides a user interface for managing a server. It makes it easier to access the robust features of PEM such as the REST API integration, dashboard and log manager.

SQL Profiler: This is an optional feature which is quite useful for recording monitored data and query plans for PEM.

In my next blog post, I will write in detail how to install the PEM server and PEM agent on Windows operating system.
Noticed any mistake in this blog post? Please contact me @onumajurubenedicta@gmail.com.

References
https://www.enterprisedb.com/docs/pem/latest/pem_architecture/