PoWA on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS

Overview

PoWA is a workload analysis platform for PostgreSQL. A set of statistics collection extensions record what the server is doing, a background worker snapshots them on an interval into a repository database, and a web interface turns those snapshots into time series charts: query time and calls, buffer and input output activity, wait events, checkpointer and background writer behaviour, and per database activity. Because it stores a history rather than a single instantaneous reading, it answers the question a live statistics view cannot: what changed, and when.

It also carries an index suggestion wizard. Predicate statistics captured by pg_qualstats tell it which columns your slowest queries actually filter on, and hypothetical indexes let it cost a candidate index against the real planner without building it, so a suggestion arrives with an estimated gain attached rather than as a guess.

This image is a complete appliance rather than a bare console. It registers the PostgreSQL instance it is installed in as the first monitored server, so it is analysing a real database from the moment it starts, and further servers can be attached later by installing the same collection extensions on them and registering them from the interface.

Common uses

• Find the queries that actually cost the most time, with history rather than a snapshot
• See which indexes a workload would benefit from, costed against the real planner
• Keep a rolling record of wait events and input output so a slow afternoon can be explained later

See it running

Real screenshots taken while testing this image against its deployment guide.