In Chapter 4, Handling Advanced SQL, you learned about advanced SQL and ways of viewing SQL in a different light. However, database work doesn't only consist of hacking up fancy SQL. Sometimes, it is about keeping things running in a professional manner. To do that, it is highly important to keep an eye on system statistics, log files, and so on. Monitoring is the key to running databases professionally. Fortunately, PostgreSQL has many features that can help you monitor your databases, and you will learn how to use them in this chapter.

In this chapter, you will learn about the following topics:

• Gathering runtime statistics
• Creating log files
• Gathering important information
• Making sense of database statistics

By the end of this chapter, you will be able to configure PostgreSQL's logging infrastructure properly and take care of log files in the most professional way possible.