RDS Postgres now supports three additional extensions (ip4r, pg_buffercache, pgstattuple), and three new parameters to add more functionality

Starting today, RDS PostgreSQL has added support for three popular PostgreSQL extensions:

ip4r - The ip4r extension adds support for several IP address datatypes, ranging from a single IPv4 address to an arbitrary range of IPv4 or IPv6 addresses.

pg_buffercache - The pg_buffercache extension provides a means for examining what's happening in a shared buffer cache in real time.

pgstattuple - The pgstattuple extension module provides various functions to obtain tuple-level statistics, such as a relation's physical length and percentage of "dead" tuples, which can help users determine if vacuum is necessary.

In addition to the new extensions, RDS PostgreSQL has also added three new parameters to provide additional functionality:

rds.force_admin_logging_level - This lets you log actions by the RDS internal user (rds_admin) in the your databases on the DB instance, and writes the output to the Postgres error log.

rds.force_autovacuum_logging_level - This logs autovacuum worker operations in all databases on the DB instance, and writes the output to the Postgres error log.

rds.rds_superuser_reserved_connections - This allows rds_superuser to have reserved connections, just like Postgres superusers.

The three new extensions, as well as rds.rds_superuser_reserved_connections parameter are available on PostgreSQL version 9.4.5 and above only. If your database has an older version of PostgreSQL 9.4 installed, you may upgrade at any time by clicking "Modify" and then selecting 9.4.5 from the list of available database versions. If your database has PostgreSQL 9.3 installed, you will need to perform a major version upgrade to 9.4.5 by following the instructions in the RDS documentation. The parameters rds.force_admin_logging_level and rds.force_autovacuum_logging_level are available on PostgreSQL 9.4.5 and PostgreSQL 9.3.10.

These new extensions are only supported for version 9.4.5. If you create any of these extensions on a version prior to 9.4.5, you will need to drop and recreate them when you convert to 9.4.5.

You can find more information about the new parameters on the RDS documentation.

You can view a list of all PostgreSQL extensions supported on RDS on the AWS User Guide. Don't see an extension you'd like to use? Let us know through the AWS Forum, through your sales rep or TAM, or by emailing us at rds-postgres-extensions-request@amazon.com.