Charmed PgBouncer Operator

Description

The PgBouncer Operator deploys and operates the PgBouncer lightweight connection pooler for PostgreSQL. This charm is only compatible with the data platform postgresql-operator charm.

Usage

To deploy pgbouncer in front of three units of postgres:

juju deploy pgbouncer --channel=edge
juju deploy postgresql --channel=edge -n 3
juju add-relation pgbouncer:backend-database postgresql:database

To deploy and relate your application to the above cluster, using the updated data platform relation (recommended):

juju deploy my-app
juju add-relation pgbouncer:database my-app:pg-backend

To deploy and relate an application to the above cluster, using the legacy pgsql relation (not recommended - this will be deprecated in future):

juju deploy my-app
juju add-relation pgbouncer:db my-app:db

Or, if my-app needs admin permissions:

juju add-relation pgbouncer:db-admin my-app:db

Configuration Options

Set these using the command juju config <option>=<value>.

• pool_mode:

  • default: session
  • Specifies when a server connection can be reused by other clients.
  • Can be one of the following values:
    • session
      • Server is released back to pool after client disconnects.
    • transaction
      • Server is released back to pool after transaction finishes.
    • statement
      • Server is released back to pool after query finishes. Transactions spanning multiple statements are disallowed in this mode.

• max_db_connections:

  • default: 100
  • Do not allow more than this many server connections per database (regardless of user). This considers the PgBouncer database that the client has connected to, not the PostgreSQL database of the outgoing connection.
  • Note that when you hit the limit, closing a client connection to one pool will not immediately allow a server connection to be established for another pool, because the server connection for the first pool is still open. Once the server connection closes (due to idle timeout), a new server connection will immediately be opened for the waiting pool.
  • 0 = unlimited

From these values and the current deployment, the following pgbouncer.ini config values are calculated proportional to max_db_connections:

• effective_db_connections = max_db_connections / number of pgbouncer instances running in a unit
  • Number of pgbouncer instances is equal to number of cpu cores on unit.
• default_pool_size = effective_db_connections / 2
  • A larger default_pool_size means each new unit will have plenty of spare space when it comes online, allowing the cluster to be more stable when more traffic is needed.
• min_pool_size = effective_db_connections / 4
  • Larger min_pool_size and reserve_pool_size (relative to pgbouncer defaults) means that if a unit goes down for whatever reason, the other units in the cluster should be able to easily handle its workload.
• reserve_pool_size = effective_db_connections / 4

If max_db_connections is set to 0, the derivatives are set as below, based on pgbouncer defaults. It's advised to avoid this and instead set max_db_connections to an amount you're expecting to use, as it will set the following values to better suit your use case.

• default_pool_size = 20
• min_pool_size = 10
• reserve_pool_size = 10

The following config values are set as constants in the charm:

• max_client_conn = 10000
• ignore_startup_parameters = extra_float_digits
  • extra_float_digits is a parameter in postgres

Relations

• database
  • Provides a relation to client applications.
  • Importantly, this relation doesn't handle scaling the same way others do. All PgBouncer nodes are read/writes, and they expose the read/write nodes of the backend database through the database name f"{dbname}_readonly".
  • However, the leader node is the only node in the "endpoints" field, and the follower nodes are stored in the "read-only-endpoints" field of the relation databag. This is to preserve interoperability with the postgres charm.
• backend-database
  • Relates to backend postgresql-operator database charm. Without a backend relation, this charm will enter BlockedStatus - if there's no Postgres backend, this charm has no purpose.

The expected data presented in a relation interface is provided in the docstring at the top of the source files for each relation.

Legacy Relations

The following relations are legacy, and will be deprecated in a future release in favour of relations using the data platform provides library. For future compatibility, build relations with the data platform requires library.

• db
  • Provides read-write access to backend database
• db-admin
  • Provides read-write access to backend database
  • The user created by the relation (credentials provided in the relation databag) has admin permissions

License

The Charmed PgBouncer Operator is free software, distributed under the Apache Software License, version 2.0. See LICENSE for more information.

Security

Security issues in the Charmed PgBouncer Operator can be reported through LaunchPad. Please do not file GitHub issues about security issues.

Contributing

Please see the Juju SDK docs for guidelines on enhancements to this charm following best practice guidelines, and CONTRIBUTING.md for developer guidance. For more information, get in touch on the Charmhub Mattermost server.