PG Exporter 1.4 Documentation

Monitor PostgreSQL with 600+ metrics, declarative configuration, and dynamic planning.

Get Started | GitHub | Live Demo

Features

Version Info

• Current stable release: v1.4.1
• Default config support: PostgreSQL 10-19+
• Legacy config support: PostgreSQL 9.1-9.6 via the legacy/ config bundle
• pgBouncer support: 1.8-1.25+

See Release Notes for the full history.

Design Rationale

pg_exporter uses these principles for production deployments:

• Local connections: if no URL is specified, use postgresql:///?sslmode=disable for a database on the same host.
• Declarative collection: use YAML collector definitions to control metric behavior with ttl, timeout, tags, and fatal.
• Dynamic planning: select the collector branch at runtime from the server version, role, extensions, and tags.
• Operation during failure: startup is non-blocking by default. HTTP endpoints start even if the database is temporarily unavailable.
• Hot reload: use POST / GET /reload or SIGHUP to reload. Non-Windows platforms also support SIGUSR1.
• Separate probes from traffic: health endpoints use cached background probes. Each request does not need a database query.
• Protect management endpoints: /reload, /explain, and /stat expose runtime and configuration details. In production, protect them with --web.config.file or keep them internal.

Installation

Select an installation method for your infrastructure:

docker run -d --name pg_exporter -p 9630:9630 -e PG_EXPORTER_URL="postgres://user:pass@host:5432/postgres" pgsty/pg_exporter:latest

# RPM-based systems
sudo tee /etc/yum.repos.d/pigsty-infra.repo > /dev/null <<-'EOF'
[pigsty-infra]
name=Pigsty Infra for $basearch
baseurl=https://repo.pigsty.io/yum/infra/$basearch
enabled = 1
gpgcheck = 0
module_hotfixes=1
EOF

sudo yum makecache;
sudo yum install -y pg_exporter

sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pigsty-infra.list > /dev/null <<EOF
deb [trusted=yes] https://repo.pigsty.io/apt/infra generic main
EOF

sudo apt update;
sudo apt install -y pg-exporter

VERSION=$(curl -fsSL https://api.github.com/repos/pgsty/pg_exporter/releases/latest | sed -n 's/.*"tag_name": "v\([^"]*\)".*/\1/p')
wget "https://github.com/pgsty/pg_exporter/releases/download/v${VERSION}/pg_exporter-${VERSION}.linux-amd64.tar.gz"
mkdir -p "pg_exporter-${VERSION}.linux-amd64"
tar -xf "pg_exporter-${VERSION}.linux-amd64.tar.gz" -C "pg_exporter-${VERSION}.linux-amd64"
sudo install "pg_exporter-${VERSION}.linux-amd64/pg_exporter" /usr/bin/
sudo install "pg_exporter-${VERSION}.linux-amd64/pg_exporter.yml" /etc/pg_exporter.yml

# Build from source
git clone https://github.com/pgsty/pg_exporter.git
cd pg_exporter
make build

Quick Start

Follow Getting Started to start PG Exporter:

# Minimal startup with the local-first default URL
pg_exporter

# Or point to a specific target
PG_EXPORTER_URL='postgres://user:pass@localhost:5432/postgres' pg_exporter

# Access metrics
curl http://localhost:9630/metrics

# Reload configuration online (POST recommended)
curl -X POST http://localhost:9630/reload

Documentation

• Getting Started - Quick start guide and basic concepts
• Installation - Installation instructions for all platforms
• Configuration - Configuration reference and examples
• Deployment - Production deployment best practices
• Collectors - Detailed documentation for all metric collectors

Live Demo

Open the PG Exporter demo: https://g.pgsty.com

The demo monitors real PostgreSQL clusters with PG Exporter. It includes:

• Real-time metrics visualization with Grafana
• Multiple PostgreSQL versions and configurations
• Extension-specific metrics and monitoring
• Complete observability stack powered by Pigsty

Community & Support

• GitHub - Source code, issues, and contributions
• Discussions - Ask questions and share experiences
• Pigsty - Complete PostgreSQL Distro with PG Exporter

License

PG Exporter is open-source software licensed under the Apache License 2.0.

Copyright 2018-2026 © Ruohang Feng / [email protected]