A quick tour of geodatabases in PostgreSQL

Enterprise geodatabases are collections of tables, views, and functions inside a database management system (DBMS). PostgreSQL is one such DBMS in which you can store your geodatabase.

You can use either the Esri ST_Geometry data type or the PostGIS geometry data type to store spatial data in geodatabases in PostgreSQL.

You can create a geodatabase in your existing PostgreSQL database and continue to store your nongeodatabase data alongside geodatabase data. You can view and publish both types of data in ArcMap, but only geodatabase data can be edited in ArcMap.

Note:

If your database contains geodatabase system tables, ArcGIS considers it a geodatabase. Therefore, even if you are connecting to tables that are not registered with the geodatabase, ArcGIS client and geodatabase release compatibility rules still apply.

There are differences in how data is stored and accessed in the supported DBMSs, which affect how you interact with the database and the geodatabase objects in it. For this reason, administration help topics have been grouped into sections based on the DBMS. This section of the help provides information on administering an enterprise geodatabase in PostgreSQL. If you access a topic by way of the search, be sure you are reading the topic that applies to the DBMS you are using.

The "Geodatabases in PostgreSQL" section of the help is organized as listed here. Links take you to a topic in that subsection of the help.

• Setting up a geodatabase: This subsection contains instructions on setting up an enterprise geodatabase in PostgreSQL. It also includes information for advanced users on configuring the database to store geodatabase objects.
• Adding and administering users: This subsection discusses the logins used to access the database and the permissions they need.
• Connecting to a geodatabase: This subsection describes setting up clients to connect to a geodatabase in PostgreSQL.
• Maintaining an enterprise geodatabase: Maintenance tasks, such as backup and recovery, geodatabase compression, and database statistics updates, are described in this section. You need to understand and regularly perform these tasks to keep your geodatabase running efficiently and avoid downtime.
• Upgrading a geodatabase: It is important that you prepare your geodatabase and properly upgrade it to move to the next release of ArcGIS when needed. Information on how to do this is provided in this subsection.
• Moving a geodatabase: Sometimes it is necessary to move your geodatabase from one database or server to another. This subsection offers some options to complete this task.
• Inside a geodatabase: This subsection describes data types used in the geodatabase and explains how different dataset types are stored in a geodatabase in PostgreSQL.