--- title: "Why pg_auto_failover is an awesome project" publication: "Postgres Weekly" issue: 431 published_at: "2021-11-17" canonical_url: "https://postgresweekly.com/issues/431" --- Plus new Postgres releases, and a DynamoDB FDW goes 1.0. | #​431 — November 17, 2021 [Web Version](https://postgresweekly.com/issues/431) Postgres Weekly [![\](https://res.cloudinary.com/cpress/image/upload/w_1280,e_sharpen:60/qvzaxw6i8o8xzbkypuym.jpg)](https://blog.timescale.com/blog/generating-more-realistic-sample-time-series-data-with-postgresql-generate_series/) [Generating More Realistic Sample Time-Series Data with `generate_series()`](https://blog.timescale.com/blog/generating-more-realistic-sample-time-series-data-with-postgresql-generate_series/) — If you get deja-vu from the title, Timescale has covered [using generate_series()](https://blog.timescale.com/blog/how-to-create-lots-of-sample-time-series-data-with-postgresql-generate_series/) before, but this takes a step-up in terms of _realism_. Goes into a lot more depth than you’d expect. Ryan Booz [PostgreSQL 14.1, 13.5, 12.9, 11.14, 10.19, and 9.6.24 Released](https://www.postgresql.org/about/news/postgresql-141-135-129-1114-1019-and-9624-released-2349/) — Phew, try and say all of those version numbers in a row without getting tongue tied.. Releases come all round to resolve a variety of bugs and two man-in-the-middle security vulnerabilities. Note that this is also the _last ever_ release of Postgres 9.6. PostgreSQL Global Development Group [![\](https://copm.s3.amazonaws.com/2d93aa8d.png)](https://gis.cybertec-postgresql.com/) [OpenStreetMap Data in PostGIS Enabled PostgreSQL Database - Free Download](https://gis.cybertec-postgresql.com/) — CYBERTEC implemented a download OpenStreetMap service, which periodically generates extracts of OpenStreetMap data in various flavors, outputted as SQL dump to streamline and simplify its usage. Download your map for free. CYBERTEC PostGIS OSM Downloader sponsor [Odyssey 1.2: A Scalable Postgres Connection Pooler](https://github.com/yandex/odyssey) — Three years ago we first announced the release of Yandex’s multi-threaded connection pooler and router that it uses to handle over one million requests per second internally. It continues to be updated and now supports PAM and LDAP. Yandex [dynamodb_fdw 1.0: A Foreign Data Wrapper for DynamoDB](https://github.com/pgspider/dynamodb_fdw) — I haven’t tested it myself yet, but I’m surprised this only picked up one star so far. The idea here is to provide access from Postgres to Amazon’s [DynamoDB](https://aws.amazon.com/dynamodb/) key/value document database. PGSpider **IN BRIEF:** - Louise Grandjonc is [this week's _PostgreSQL Person of the Week_](https://postgresql.life/post/louise_grandjonc/) and talks about her thoughts on Postgres, where things could improve, and her favorite recent features. - [Some notes on the Postgres 'end of life' process](https://www.lansweeper.com/eol/postgresql-end-of-life/) as Postgres 9.6 reaches its own end of life after just over five years. [An Introduction to `pg_auto_failover`](https://tapoueh.org/blog/2021/11/an-introduction-to-the-pg_auto_failover-project/) — [pg_auto_failover](https://github.com/citusdata/pg_auto_failover) is an extension that provides automated failover within a Postgres cluster. This post tells the entire story of the extension, how it works, and where its value lies. Dimitri Fontaine [Installing Postgres with WSL2 on Windows](https://www.cybertec-postgresql.com/en/postgresql-on-wsl2-for-windows-install-and-setup/) — The _Windows Subsystem for Linux_ (WSL) provides a compatibility layer for running Linux binaries on Windows which means you can build Postgres in a Linux-oriented fashion and run it on Windows, if you like, rather than using a native Windows build. Pavlo Golub [Easily Running Babelfish for Postgres on Kubernetes](https://stackgres.io/blog/easily-running-babelfish-for-postgresql-on-kubernetes/) — [Babelfish](https://babelfishpg.org/) is an open-source project from AWS that adds a SQL Server compatibility layer on top of Postgres, and StackGres is a platform for running Postgres on Kubernetes. You can now bring those two together. Alvaro Hernandez [Analyzing Scans in Postgres](https://arctype.com/blog/postgres-explain-analyze-scan/) — Understand the different types of scans and why the query planner chooses them in different situations. If you’ve seen terms like ‘sequential scan’ or ‘bitmap heap scan’ in query plans and not quite understood what they mean, this provides some (quite basic) explanations. Zach Naimon [`ORDER BY` is Mandatory in SQL to Get a Sorted Result](https://dev.to/yugabyte/order-by-is-mandatory-in-sql-to-get-a-sorted-result-3pmk) — One of those things you might implicitly know without thinking about. Franck Pachot [Query MongoDB Like You Query Your Postgres - with SQL Using Studio 3T](https://www.studio3t.com/download?utm_source=postgreswkly&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=nov17) Studio 3T sponsor [PGroonga: Extend Full Text Search Features to All Languages](https://pgroonga.github.io/) — Brings the [Groonga](https://groonga.org/) fulltext search engine to Postgres which can suit certain use cases better than the Postgres default, such as with Japanese or Chinese. PGroona Project [Cloudflare Workers Introduces Relational Database Connectors](https://blog.cloudflare.com/relational-database-connectors/) — [Workers](https://workers.cloudflare.com/) is Cloudflare’s globally distributed serverless function platform and they’ve added a feature for connecting functions to internally hosted relational databases (including Postgres) by way of a tunnel. Sikand, McKeon and Yule (Cloudflare) **Got a new email?** You can [change your address here](https://postgresweekly.com/edit_subscription/*|UID|*). --- **Bored of us?** [Click here to stop getting Postgres Weekly](https://postgresweekly.com/leave/*|UID|*). --- **Got a link for us?** Reply and tell us. We can't include everything but we'll look at anything you send. Thanks! --- Published by Cooper Press Ltd. Fairfield Enterprise Centre, Louth, LN11 0LS, United Kingdom Postgres, PostgreSQL and the Slonik Logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of the PostgreSQL Community Association of Canada. [Stop getting this newsletter.](https://postgresweekly.com/leave/*|UID|*)