Short for Azure Cosmos DB for PostgreSQL, a Citus-based distributed relational service that scales writes out horizontally. New projects are steered away from it towards Azure Database for PostgreSQL elastic clusters.
Also called Cosmos DB API, Citus, Cosmos DB for PostgreSQL.
Read more: Microsoft Learn
In the Ultra Transcenders books
Each book explains PostgreSQL in context, with comparison tables and the common traps.
Terms in this definition
- Azure Cosmos DB for PostgreSQL
Microsoft is retiring this Citus-based distributed PostgreSQL offering and doesn't advise starting new projects on it. Its suggested homes are elastic clusters in Azure Database for PostgreSQL for relational work, or Cosmos DB for NoSQL if NoSQL suits better.
- Azure Database for PostgreSQL
Azure's managed PostgreSQL. It grows by scaling up and by adding read replicas rather than multi-master writes; to spread writes horizontally you use its elastic clusters feature, based on Citus.
Related terms
- Azure Database for PostgreSQL flexible server
Current deployment option of Azure's managed PostgreSQL. It scales up and offers read replicas but not multi-master; writes are distributed horizontally through the Citus-based elastic clusters feature.
- BRIN
Short for block range index, a PostgreSQL index that keeps a summary for each range of table blocks. It is compact and works well on very big tables where values track the physical order of rows, timestamps being a typical case.
- GIN
PostgreSQL index that the book places on jsonb metadata columns; scalar filtering relies on B-tree and embeddings on vector indexes.
- Microsoft Defender for open-source relational databases
Detects threats like brute-force attempts against Azure Database for MySQL and PostgreSQL flexible servers, as well as Amazon RDS engines in linked AWS accounts; one of the Defender for Cloud plans.
- Microsoft Entra administrator
On a PostgreSQL flexible server, an Entra user, group, managed identity or service principal granted privileges equal to the original server admin, including managing local and Entra roles. Multiple can be set.
- pgAdmin
Widely used open-source tool for administering and developing PostgreSQL. Pointed at Azure Database for PostgreSQL it can create, monitor and manage objects, although backup, restore and other server-level jobs are left to Azure.
- pgAudit
Extension for PostgreSQL that produces audit logs in Azure Database for PostgreSQL. Unlike Defender plan alerts, any alerting on its output has to be set up separately.
- SQL dialect
Each database vendor extends standard SQL with its own features for areas like triggers, user accounts and stored procedures. PL/SQL in Oracle, pgSQL in PostgreSQL and Transact-SQL in SQL Server and Azure SQL are examples.