---
title: PostgreSQL module
description: This module periodically fetches metrics from PostgreSQL servers. Default metricsets are activity, bgwriter and database. The PostgreSQL module comes...
url: https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3016/reference/beats/metricbeat/metricbeat-module-postgresql
products:
  - Beats
  - Metricbeat
applies_to:
  - Elastic Cloud Serverless: Generally available
  - Elastic Stack: Generally available
---

# PostgreSQL module
<admonition title="Prefer to use Elastic Agent for this use case?">
  Refer to the [Elastic Integrations documentation](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3016/reference/postgresql).
  <dropdown title="Learn more">
    Elastic Agent is a single, unified way to add monitoring for logs, metrics, and other types of data to a host. It can also protect hosts from security threats, query data from operating systems, forward data from remote services or hardware, and more. Refer to the documentation for a detailed [comparison of Beats and Elastic Agent](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3016/reference/fleet).
  </dropdown>
</admonition>

This module periodically fetches metrics from [PostgreSQL](https://www.postgresql.org/) servers.
Default metricsets are `activity`, `bgwriter` and `database`.

## Dashboard

The PostgreSQL module comes with a predefined dashboard showing databse related metrics. For example:
![metricbeat postgresql overview](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3016/reference/beats/metricbeat/images/metricbeat-postgresql-overview.png)

## Module-specific configuration notes

When configuring the `hosts` option, you must use Postgres URLs of the following format:
```
[postgres://][user:pass@]host[:port][?options]
```

The URL can be as simple as:
```yaml
- module: postgresql
  hosts: ["postgres://localhost"]
```

Or more complex like:
```yaml
- module: postgresql
  hosts: ["postgres://localhost:40001?sslmode=disable", "postgres://otherhost:40001"]
```

You can also separately specify the username and password using the respective configuration options. Usernames and passwords specified in the URL take precedence over those specified in the `username` and `password` config options.
```yaml
- module: postgresql
  metricsets: ["status"]
  hosts: ["postgres://localhost:5432"]
  username: root
  password: test
```


## Compatibility

This module was tested with PostgreSQL 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13. It is expected to work with all versions >= 9.

## Example configuration

The PostgreSQL module supports the standard configuration options that are described in [Modules](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3016/reference/beats/metricbeat/configuration-metricbeat). Here is an example configuration:
```yaml
metricbeat.modules:
- module: postgresql
  enabled: true
  metricsets:
    # Stats about every PostgreSQL database
    - database

    # Stats about the background writer process's activity
    - bgwriter

    # Stats about every PostgreSQL process
    - activity

    # Stats about every statement executed in the server. It requires the
    # `pg_stats_statement` library to be configured in the server.
    #- statement

  period: 10s

  # The host must be passed as PostgreSQL URL. Example:
  # postgres://localhost:5432?sslmode=disable
  # The available parameters are documented here:
  # https://godoc.org/github.com/lib/pq#hdr-Connection_String_Parameters
  hosts: ["postgres://localhost:5432"]

  # Username to use when connecting to PostgreSQL. Empty by default.
  #username: user

  # Password to use when connecting to PostgreSQL. Empty by default.
  #password: pass
```


## Metricsets

The following metricsets are available:
- [activity](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3016/reference/beats/metricbeat/metricbeat-metricset-postgresql-activity)
- [bgwriter](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3016/reference/beats/metricbeat/metricbeat-metricset-postgresql-bgwriter)
- [database](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3016/reference/beats/metricbeat/metricbeat-metricset-postgresql-database)
- [statement](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3016/reference/beats/metricbeat/metricbeat-metricset-postgresql-statement)