Manual PostgreSQL configuration and tuning

If you prefer to tune settings yourself, or for settings not covered by timescaledb-tune, you can manually configure your installation using the PostgreSQL configuration file.

For some common configuration settings you might want to adjust, see the about configuration page.

For more information about the PostgreSQL configuration page, see the PostgreSQL documentation.

Edit the PostgreSQL configuration file

The location of the PostgreSQL configuration file depends on your operating system and installation.

1. Find the location of the config file for your instance

   1. Connect to your database:

      psql -d "postgres://<username>:<password>@<host>:<port>/<database-name>"

   2. Retrieve the database file location from the database internal configuration.

      SHOW config_file;

      PostgreSQL returns the path to your configuration file. For example:

      --------------------------------------------
      /home/postgres/pgdata/data/postgresql.conf
      (1 row)

2. Open the config file, then edit your PostgreSQL configuration

   See the PostgreSQL documentation for details on available settings.

   vi /home/postgres/pgdata/data/postgresql.conf

3. Save your updated configuration

   When you have saved the changes you make to the configuration file, the new configuration is not applied immediately. The configuration file is automatically reloaded when the server receives a SIGHUP signal. To manually reload the file, use the pg_ctl command.

Setting parameters at the command prompt

If you don’t want to open the configuration file to make changes, you can also set parameters directly from the command prompt, using the postgres command. For example:

postgres -c log_connections=yes -c log_destination='syslog'