Initializing the pgactive extension capability

To initialize the pgactive extension capability on your RDS for PostgreSQL DB instance, set the value of the rds.enable_pgactive parameter to 1 and then create the extension in the database. Doing so automatically turns on the parameters rds.logical_replication and track_commit_timestamp and sets the value of wal_level to logical.

You must have permissions as the rds_superuser role to perform these tasks.

You can use the AWS Management Console or the AWS CLI to create the required RDS for PostgreSQL DB instances. The steps following assume that your RDS for PostgreSQL DB instance is associated with a custom DB parameter group. For information about creating a custom DB parameter group, see Parameter groups for Amazon RDS.

Console

To initialize the pgactive extension capability

1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the Amazon RDS console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/rds/.

2. In the navigation pane, choose your RDS for PostgreSQL DB instance.

3. Open the Configuration tab for your RDS for PostgreSQL DB instance. In the instance details, find the DB instance parameter group link.

4. Choose the link to open the custom parameters associated with your RDS for PostgreSQL DB instance.

5. Find the rds.enable_pgactive parameter, and set it to 1 to initialize the pgactive capability.

6. Choose Save changes.

7. In the navigation pane of the Amazon RDS console, choose Databases.

8. Select your RDS for PostgreSQL DB instance, and then choose Reboot from the Actions menu.

9. Confirm the DB instance reboot so that your changes take effect.

10. When the DB instance is available, you can use psql or any other PostgreSQL client to connect to the RDS for PostgreSQL DB instance.

    The following example assumes that your RDS for PostgreSQL DB instance has a default database named postgres.

    psql --host=mydb.111122223333.aws-region.rds.amazonaws.com --port=5432 --username=postgres --password=PASSWORD --dbname=postgres
    

11. To verify that pgactive is initialized, run the following command.

    postgres=>SELECT setting ~ 'pgactive' 
    FROM pg_catalog.pg_settings
    WHERE name = 'shared_preload_libraries';

    If pgactive is in shared_preload_libraries, the preceding command will return the following:

    
    ?column? 
    ----------
     t

AWS CLI

To initialize the pgactive extension capability

To initialize the pgactive using the AWS CLI, call the modify-db-parameter-group operation to modify certain parameters in your custom parameter group as shown in the following procedure.

1. Use the following AWS CLI command to set rds.enable_pgactive to 1 to initialize the pgactive capability for the RDS for PostgreSQL DB instance.

   postgres=>aws rds modify-db-parameter-group \
      --db-parameter-group-name custom-param-group-name \
      --parameters "ParameterName=rds.enable_pgactive,ParameterValue=1,ApplyMethod=pending-reboot" \
      --region aws-region

2. Use the following AWS CLI command to reboot the RDS for PostgreSQL DB instance so that the pgactive library is initialized.

   aws rds reboot-db-instance \
       --db-instance-identifier your-instance \
       --region aws-region

3. When the instance is available, use psql to connect to the RDS for PostgreSQL DB instance.

   psql --host=mydb.111122223333.aws-region.rds.amazonaws.com --port=5432 --username=master user --password=PASSWORD --dbname=postgres
   

4. To verify that pgactive is initialized, run the following command.

   postgres=>SELECT setting ~ 'pgactive' 
   FROM pg_catalog.pg_settings
   WHERE name = 'shared_preload_libraries';

   If pgactive is in shared_preload_libraries, the preceding command will return the following:

   
   ?column? 
   ----------
    t