Overview of System Catalogs and System Views

System catalogs store structured metadata of GaussDB(DWS). They are the source of information used by GaussDB(DWS) to control system running and are a core component of the database system.

System views provide ways to query system catalogs and internal database status.

In separation of duty, non-administrators have no permission to view system catalogs and views. In other scenarios, system catalogs and views are either visible only to administrators or visible to all users. Some of the following system catalogs and views have marked the need of administrator permissions. They are accessible only to administrators.

You can delete and recreate the catalogs, add columns to them, and insert and update values in them, but doing so may make system information inconsistent and cause system faults. Generally, users should not modify system catalogs and system views, or rename the corresponding schemas. They are automatically maintained by the system.

Do not add, delete, or modify system catalogs because doing so will result in exceptions or even cluster unavailability.