Azure PostgreSQL Database Management

Use database access requirements and platform data-service context to run PostgreSQL health, connection, backup, and monitoring checks with concise evidence and recommendations.

When to invoke

• "Check PostgreSQL database health."
• "Validate the Backstage database connection."
• "Review database backup retention."
• "Monitor active connections or database size."
• "Troubleshoot database connectivity or performance."

Prerequisites and context

• Azure CLI for Azure databases.
• psql for PostgreSQL operations.
• Appropriate database credentials.

Procedure

Azure PostgreSQL

# List PostgreSQL servers
az postgres flexible-server list -o table

# Show server details
az postgres flexible-server show --name <server> --resource-group <rg>

# Check firewall rules
az postgres flexible-server firewall-rule list --name <server> --resource-group <rg>

# Check backup retention
az postgres flexible-server show --name <server> --resource-group <rg> --query "backup"

Connection testing

# Test PostgreSQL connection
psql "host=<host> dbname=<db> user=<user> sslmode=require" -c "SELECT version();"

# Check active connections
psql -c "SELECT count(*) FROM pg_stat_activity WHERE state = 'active';"

Health monitoring

# Check database size
psql -c "SELECT pg_size_pretty(pg_database_size(current_database()));"

# Check table sizes
psql -c "SELECT schemaname, tablename, pg_size_pretty(pg_total_relation_size(schemaname||'.'||tablename))
         FROM pg_tables ORDER BY pg_total_relation_size(schemaname||'.'||tablename) DESC LIMIT 10;"

Best practices

1. Use private endpoints for database connectivity
2. Enable SSL/TLS for all connections
3. Configure automated backups
4. Monitor connection pool usage
5. Set up alerts for high CPU/memory

Output template

Return exactly this structure:

# Database management result

**Status:** PASS | FAIL | BLOCKED
**Database:** server/database name or unknown
**Summary:** One sentence describing database health or the issue found.

### Details
| Check | Result | Evidence |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Connection | PASS | `psql` response summary |
| Backup retention | PASS | Azure CLI query summary |
| Active connections | PASS | Count or threshold context |
| Size review | PASS | Database or table size summary |

### Recommendations
- Remediation or follow-up action.

### Validation evidence
- Command executed: exact command or redacted equivalent.
- Result: PASS | FAIL | BLOCKED with output summary.

Limits

• Do not use this skill for Azure resource provisioning.
• Use azure-cli (skill) instead when creating or changing Azure database resources directly.
• Use azure-terraform-cli (skill) instead when database infrastructure must be changed through Terraform.
• Use open-horizons-deploy-orchestration (skill) instead when database work is part of full platform deployment sequencing.
• Use azure-kubectl-cli (skill) instead when the task is Kubernetes pod inspection.

Related primitives

Name	Type	Use it when
azure-cli	skill	Azure database resource discovery or direct Azure operations are needed.
azure-terraform-cli	skill	Database infrastructure changes must be planned or applied as IaC.
azure-kubectl-cli	skill	Database troubleshooting requires Kubernetes workload inspection.
azure-observability-stack	skill	Metrics, dashboards, or alerts should monitor database behavior.
open-horizons-deploy-orchestration	skill	Database checks are part of platform deployment.
open-horizons-sre-investigator	agent	Database symptoms are part of an incident or reliability investigation.
open-horizons-terraform	agent	Database infrastructure code needs an owner.

Quality gate

• Database credentials are available from an approved source and never printed in full.
• SSL/TLS is required for PostgreSQL connection checks.
• Azure server, firewall, and backup checks include command evidence when in scope.
• Connection, active session, and size checks include result summaries.
• Recommendations separate immediate remediation from longer-term monitoring work.