Recommended way of invoking pg_repack on google cloud - postgresql

Question

We have installed pg_repack on our postgresql database.
What is the best way to periodically invoke the pg_repack command using GCP infrastructure?
We tried running it using Cloud Run, but the 1 hour time limit often means that it times out before it can finish.
When it times out, we face the following error on subsequent runs:
WARNING: the table "public.<table name>" already has a trigger called "repack_trigger"
DETAIL: The trigger was probably installed during a previous attempt to run pg_repack on the table which was interrupted and for some reason failed to clean up the temporary objects. Please drop the trigger or drop and recreate the pg_repack extension altogether to remove all the temporary objects left over.
Which forces us to manually recreate the extension.
What is the easiest way to schedule pg_repack without the fear of it timing out? Alternatively, is there a way to gracefully shut down pg_repack, so that we can retry without having to recreate the extension?

Answer 1

This pg_repack command takes a lot to complete when you use Cloud Run .
The best and easiest approach is to work with Google Cloud Functions or Google Cloud Scheduler to schedule the pg_repack command to run smoothly.
Without the risk of timing out by using Cloud Scheduler to trigger the cloud function at the required interval( such as once a day) run periodically.
Below the code, the repack_table_felix function is used in this code to repack the designated table. The force_inplace=true parameter forces the repack to take place in-place, which might be faster but uses up more disc space. This parameter can be changed to suit your unique use case.
The "repack_trigger" handles the exception error messages, This will allow the function to exit gracefully without leaving any object behind.
import psycopg2
def repack_database(request):
conn = psycopg2.connect(host="<host name>", dbname="<database name>", user="<username>", password="<password>")
cur = conn.cursor()
try:
cur.execute("SELECT pg_repack.repack_table_felix('<your table name>', force_inplace=true)")
conn.commit()
except Exception as e:
conn.rollback()
print(e)
finally:
cur.close()
conn.close()
return "pg_repack completed successfully"