12.7. Maintaining the Database

It is usually recommended to provide database maintenance on a regular basis. For example, you might aim to set up a cronjob to clean redundant data from the database. Accomplish this using the following commands:

su postgres -

# su postgres -
bash-4.1$ psql -d rhnschema -c 'VACUUM;'
bash-4.1$ exit

This changes to the postgres user to access the Satellite 5 database (rhnschema) and perform a VACUUM on the database tables. This reclaims storage that dead tuples occupy. Deleted or obsolete tuples are not usually physically removed from their table and remain present until performing a VACUUM.