blog

Key Operational enhancements and integration options in PostgreSQL 16

Kyle Buzzell

Published: October 2, 2025

Although PostgreSQL 17 was released in September 2024, most organizations remain one to three major versions behind. Best practice also dictates upgrading sequentially to avoid compatibility issues when skipping major versions.

As such, PostgreSQL 16 is still on the upgrade path for most teams and offers significant enhancements that DBAs and DevOps engineers will find valuable, including an improved query planner, enhanced parallelism, advanced logical replication, and stronger security.

This post covers PostgreSQL 16’s key features, compares manual versus ClusterControl-based configuration, and explores practical use cases.

PostgreSQL 16’s Key Features

Performance Improvements

Optimized Query Planning: PostgreSQL 16 features smarter join strategies and more accurate cost estimation for its query planner, leading to faster execution paths for complex queries.
Enhanced Parallelism: Analytical workloads benefit from improved parallel SELECT and COPY operations, enabling better scaling across multiple cores. This translates to reduced query times and increased throughput for DBAs managing multi-core servers.

Logical Replication Enhancements

Row/Column Filtering: This new capability enables selective data replication, making it ideal for partial data distribution and compliance requirements, such as GDPR.
Bidirectional Improvements: Simplified conflict handling and subscription management contribute to smoother operation in multi-primary or hybrid deployment configurations.

Security Updates

Stronger SCRAM Authentication: PostgreSQL 16 now defaults to SCRAM-SHA-256, offering more robust password negotiation.
Improved Auditing: Expanded logging and more granular role management enhance compliance and auditing capabilities.

Manual setup and management vs. ClusterControl: Pros & Cons

When considering the setup and management of PostgreSQL 16, two primary approaches can be followed: manual configuration or the use of tools like ClusterControl for deploying, managing, and monitoring. Each method presents distinct advantages and disadvantages.

Approach	Pros	Cons
Manual Setup	Full control over configuration, no external dependencies	Time-consuming, error-prone, limited visibility, harder to scale and monitor
ClusterControl	Centralized deployment, monitoring, and management; automation of backups, replication, failover, and performance tuning; real-time alerting	Requires initial learning curve; depends on adopting additional software

ClusterControl simplifies complex operations with an intuitive UI, integrated performance advisors, automated backups, and alerting — enabling DBAs to act quickly when issues arise.

Installing PostgreSQL 16 manually (Quick Start)

If you want to install PostgreSQL manually, these are the steps to perform a basic installation.

Debian-based OS:

The manual install steps for Debian are as follows;
1. Import the repository signing key
2. Crete the repository configuration file
3. Update the package lists and
4. Install the corresponding version of PostgreSQL

And these are the commands:

sudo apt install curl ca-certificates
sudo install -d /usr/share/postgresql-common/pgdg
sudo curl -o /usr/share/postgresql-common/pgdg/apt.postgresql.org.asc --fail https://www.postgresql.org/media/keys/ACCC4CF8.asc

. /etc/os-release
sudo sh -c "echo 'deb [signed-by=/usr/share/postgresql-common/pgdg/apt.postgresql.org.asc] \
https://apt.postgresql.org/pub/repos/apt $VERSION_CODENAME-pgdg main' > \
/etc/apt/sources.list.d/pgdg.list"

sudo apt update
sudo apt -y install postgresql-16

Red Hat-based OS (v10):

The manual install steps for Red Hat are as follows;
1. Install the repository
2. Disable the current repository / module for PostgreSQL
3. Install the corresponding version of PostgreSQL
4. Run the initial setup and start it

sudo dnf install -y https://download.postgresql.org/pub/repos/yum/reporpms/EL-10-x86_64/pgdg-redhat-repo-latest.noarch.rpm
sudo dnf -qy module disable postgresql
sudo dnf install -y postgresql16-server

sudo /usr/pgsql-16/bin/postgresql-16-setup initdb
sudo systemctl enable postgresql-16
sudo systemctl start postgresql-16

N.B. This covers only a minimal installation. Configuration in postgresql.conf and pg_hba.conf remains essential for production readiness.

Importing PostgreSQL 16 to ClusterControl

Even if installed manually, you can still import your PostgreSQL instance to ClusterControl for centralized management.

For this, go to the ClusterControl UI and select “Deploy a cluster”:

Now select “Import a database cluster” and choose your database technology. In the next step, you can specify a name for your cluster and tags.

Then, add the SSH information to access your database nodes. The SSH user can be root or any user with sudo/doas/pbrun privileges.

Now it’s time to add the node configuration, like port, database user, and repository, in case you don’t want to use the vendor’s one.

Finally, you just need to add the IP address or hostname of your database nodes.

Once imported, ClusterControl provides automated monitoring, performance tuning, scaling, and failover — without manual edits to configuration files.

Postgres 16 operations and monitoring with ClusterControl

After importing/deploying your PostgreSQL cluster, you should have something like this:

So, what now? Well, from here, you can, for example:

Scaling out: Add replication nodes in just a few clicks, eliminating the need for complex commands or dump operations.
Optimize Performance: Easily tune parameters such as work_mem, parallel_workers, and autovacuum thresholds directly from the UI.
Monitor and Alert: Gain real-time insights into query performance, replication lag, and node health through intuitive dashboards.

PG 16 practical use cases

PostgreSQL 16 Native Capabilities

Compliance-driven replication: Use row/column filtering to replicate only required subsets of data.
Hybrid/multi-primary setups: Simplified conflict handling supports distributed architectures.

ClusterControl-Enhanced Scenarios

Hybrid or Multi-Node Environments: Manage geographically distributed clusters seamlessly.
Read Scaling: Built-in failover and load balancing maximize availability and performance.
Resilience Automation: Automated backup/restore and recovery minimize downtime risk.

Wrapping up

PostgreSQL 16 significantly improves performance, reliability, and security, meeting modern application demands. Its full potential is unlocked when integrated with ClusterControl, which automates database management and provides real-time monitoring. This combination leads to a more efficient and resilient PostgreSQL environment, reducing manual effort and improving business outcomes.

Explore ClusterControl to maximize PostgreSQL 16’s benefits! Install ClusterControl directly from here and manage your PostgreSQL deployments with a free 30-day Enterprise trial.

Script Installation Instructions

The installer script is the simplest way to get ClusterControl up and running. Run it on your chosen host, and it will take care of installing all required packages and dependencies.

Offline environments are supported as well. See the Offline Installation guide for more details.

On the ClusterControl server, run the following commands:

wget https://severalnines.com/downloads/cmon/install-cc
chmod +x install-cc

With your install script ready, run the command below. Replace S9S_CMON_PASSWORD and S9S_ROOT_PASSWORD placeholders with your choice password, or remove the environment variables from the command to interactively set the passwords. If you have multiple network interface cards, assign one IP address for the HOST variable in the command using HOST=<ip_address>.

S9S_CMON_PASSWORD=<your_password> S9S_ROOT_PASSWORD=<your_password> HOST=<ip_address> ./install-cc # as root or sudo user

After the installation is complete, open a web browser, navigate to https://<ClusterControl_host>/, and create the first admin user by entering a username (note that “admin” is reserved) and a password on the welcome page. Once you’re in, you can deploy a new database cluster or import an existing one.

The installer script supports a range of environment variables for advanced setup. You can define them using export or by prefixing the install command.

See the list of supported variables and example use cases to tailor your installation.

Other Installation Options

Helm Chart

Deploy ClusterControl on Kubernetes using our official Helm chart.

Ansible Role

Automate installation and configuration using our Ansible playbooks.

Puppet Module

Manage your ClusterControl deployment with the Puppet module.

ClusterControl on Marketplaces

Prefer to launch ClusterControl directly from the cloud? It’s available on these platforms: