Management Utility Reference
This reference describes the command-line management utilities provided with Greenplum
Database. Greenplum Database uses the standard PostgreSQL client and server programs and
provides additional management utilities for administering a distributed Greenplum Database
DBMS. Greenplum Database management utilities reside in
$GPHOME/bin.When referencing IPv6 addresses in
gpfdist URLs or when using numeric IP addresses instead of hostnames in
any management utility, always enclose the IP address in brackets. For command prompt use,
the best practice is to escape any brackets or put them inside quotation marks. For example,
use
either:gpdbrestore -R \[2620:0:170:610::11\]
gpdbrestore -R '[2620:0:170:610::11]'
The following are the Greenplum Database management utilities.
(deprecated)
gpchecknet (deprecated)
gpcheckos (deprecated)
gpdetective (deprecated)
gp_dump (deprecated)
gprebuildsystem (deprecated)
gp_restore (deprecated)
gpsizecalc (deprecated)
gpskew (deprecated)
Backend Server Programs
The following standard PostgreSQL server management programs are provided with Greenplum
Database and reside in $GPHOME/bin. They are modified to handle the
parallelism and distribution of a Greenplum Database system. You access these programs only
through the Greenplum Database management tools and utilities.
Greenplum Database Backend Server Programs
Program Name
Description
Use Instead
initdb
This program is called by gpinitsystem when
initializing a Greenplum Database array. It is used internally to create the
individual segment instances and the master instance.
ipcclean
Not used in Greenplum Database
N/A
gpsyncmaster
This is the Greenplum program that starts the
gpsyncagent process on the standby master host. Administrators do
not call this program directly, but do so through the management scripts that
initialize and/or activate a standby master for a Greenplum Database system. This
process is responsible for keeping the standby master up to date with the primary
master via a transaction log replication process.
,
pg_controldata
Not used in Greenplum Database
pg_ctl
This program is called by gpstart and
gpstop when starting or stopping a Greenplum Database array. It
is used internally to stop and start the individual segment instances and the master
instance in parallel and with the correct options.
,
pg_resetxlog
DO NOT USEWarning: This program might cause data loss
or cause data to become unavailable. If this program is used, the Pivotal Greenplum Database cluster is not supported. The
cluster must be reinitialized and restored by the
customer.
N/A
postgres
The postgres executable is the actual
PostgreSQL server process that processes queries.
The main postgres process (postmaster) creates
other postgres subprocesses and postgres session
as needed to handle client connections.
postmaster
postmaster starts the postgres
database server listener process that accepts client connections. In Greenplum
Database, a postgres database listener process runs on the
Greenplum master Instance and on each Segment Instance.
In Greenplum Database, you use and
to
start all postmasters (postgres processes) in the system at once in
the correct order and with the correct options.