Management Utility Reference

This reference describes the command-line management utilities provided with Greenplum Database. Greenplum Database uses the standard PostgreSQL client and server programs and provides additional management utilities for administering a distributed Greenplum Database DBMS. Greenplum Database management utilities reside in $GPHOME/bin.

Note: When referencing IPv6 addresses in gpfdist URLs or when using numeric IP addresses instead of hostnames in any management utility, always enclose the IP address in brackets. For command prompt use, the best practice is to escape any brackets or put them inside quotation marks. For example, use either:

gpdbrestore -R \[2620:0:170:610::11\]
gpdbrestore -R '[2620:0:170:610::11]'

The following are the Greenplum Database management utilities.

gpchecknet (deprecated)

gpcheckos (deprecated)

gpdetective (deprecated)

gp_dump (deprecated)

gprebuildsystem (deprecated)

gprecoverseg

gpreload

gp_restore (deprecated)

gpsizecalc (deprecated)

gpskew (deprecated)

Backend Server Programs

The following standard PostgreSQL server management programs are provided with Greenplum Database and reside in $GPHOME/bin. They are modified to handle the parallelism and distribution of a Greenplum Database system. You access these programs only through the Greenplum Database management tools and utilities.

Table 1. Greenplum Database Backend Server Programs
Program Name	Description	Use Instead
`initdb`	This program is called by `gpinitsystem` when initializing a Greenplum Database array. It is used internally to create the individual segment instances and the master instance.	`gpinitsystem`
`ipcclean`	Not used in Greenplum Database	N/A
`gpsyncmaster`	This is the Greenplum program that starts the `gpsyncagent` process on the standby master host. Administrators do not call this program directly, but do so through the management scripts that initialize and/or activate a standby master for a Greenplum Database system. This process is responsible for keeping the standby master up to date with the primary master via a transaction log replication process.	`gpinitstandby`, `gpactivatestandby`
`pg_controldata`	Not used in Greenplum Database	`gpstate`
`pg_ctl`	This program is called by `gpstart` and `gpstop` when starting or stopping a Greenplum Database array. It is used internally to stop and start the individual segment instances and the master instance in parallel and with the correct options.	`gpstart`, `gpstop`
`pg_resetxlog`	Not used in Greenplum Database	N/A
`postgres`	The `postgres` executable is the actual PostgreSQL server process that processes queries.	The main `postgres` process (postmaster) creates other `postgres` subprocesses and `postgres` session as needed to handle client connections.
`postmaster`	`postmaster` starts the `postgres` database server listener process that accepts client connections. In Greenplum Database, a `postgres` database listener process runs on the Greenplum master Instance and on each Segment Instance.	In Greenplum Database, you use `gpstart` and `gpstop` to start all postmasters (`postgres` processes) in the system at once in the correct order and with the correct options.