Server and database
A connection in Alcuin is one database. The Postgres server it lives on can hold many databases, and some things belong to the server rather than to any one of them. Alcuin names the scope wherever a view could be read either way.
Postgres’s own manual calls the server a cluster: one running server and the databases it holds. Alcuin says server.
What belongs to this database
Section titled “What belongs to this database”- Schemas, tables, views, functions, types and sequences: everything in the Explorer.
- Grants on those objects, and default privileges.
- Top statements: Alcuin reads
pg_stat_statementsfor this database only. - Most of Health: tables, indexes and sequences that need a look.
What the server shares
Section titled “What the server shares”- Roles: a role, its attributes (login, superuser,
BYPASSRLS) and its memberships are the same in every database on the server. Roles says on this server, and a role’s grants split into On this server and In, followed by your database’s name. - Activity: sessions are the server’s. Activity shows this database’s and hides the rest; turn off Hide other databases to see every session, with a Database column saying where each one is. Cancel and Terminate on another database’s session name that database.
- Locks: the lock table spans the server, so a session in another database can block one in yours. The blocking tree shows it, with its database.
- Server settings, such as
autovacuumandmax_connections. Health marks findings about them Server, and findings about your tables This database. - Tablespaces: where a table’s files live is server-wide.