Database SRE

Production setup of Ola Hallengren's SQL Server Maintenance Solution: the four jobs that matter, FULL/DIFF/LOG backup cadence for your RPO, DBCC CHECKDB scheduling, IndexOptimize tuning, encryption, and CommandLog-based alerting.

Set up PostgreSQL monitoring with Prometheus and postgres_exporter. Includes install steps, critical alert rules, Grafana dashboard panels, and custom query metrics.

PostgreSQL 16 introduced logical replication from standbys, pg_stat_io, SQL/JSON constructors, COPY improvements, and pg_stat_checkpointer. Full DBA upgrade guide.

Run PostgreSQL schema changes without locking: CREATE INDEX CONCURRENTLY, NOT VALID constraints, expand-contract column type changes, and lock_timeout. Covers pg_repack for table rewrites.

Use pg_cron to schedule SQL jobs inside PostgreSQL. Covers installation, cron syntax, partition maintenance, materialized view refresh, job monitoring, and RDS setup.

Define meaningful SLOs and SLAs for your database tier — latency, availability, durability, and error budgets

A practical runbook for database incidents — triage, diagnosis, escalation, and post-mortem for MySQL and PostgreSQL

Configure pgBackRest for full, differential, and WAL archiving backups with S3 storage and point-in-time recovery

In 2026, more database versions are hitting end-of-life than any year in recent history.

Build a production database DR runbook covering RTO/RPO definitions, failover steps, PITR recovery commands, and a verification checklist. Test it quarterly.

PostgreSQL's logging system is powerful but requires careful configuration to be useful in production. Learn how to capture slow queries, connection events, and DDL changes without drowning in noise.

Build a complete database observability stack with Prometheus metrics, slow query logs, and OpenTelemetry distributed traces. Includes alert rules for replication lag and cache hit rate.

Secure database credentials with AWS Secrets Manager, automatic rotation, Kubernetes secrets, and git-secrets scanning. Never hardcode connection strings.

Implement MySQL point-in-time recovery using binary logs. Covers binlog configuration, mysqlbinlog replay with stop-datetime, GTID-based filtering, and S3 binlog archival.

Choose PostgreSQL backup and recovery methods from explicit RTO and RPO, preserve continuous WAL, verify manifests, and rehearse isolated restores.

mysqld_exporter exposes 300+ MySQL metrics for Prometheus. Learn to deploy it, configure essential alerting rules for connection saturation and replication lag, and build production dashboards in Grafana.

PostgreSQL 17 finally adds native incremental backup support — allowing subsequent backups to capture only changed blocks since the last full backup.

Use pg_upgrade to migrate between PostgreSQL major versions — upgrade strategies, pre-checks, and rollback plans

Build a data-driven capacity planning process using historical metrics, growth trends, and resource modeling

Migrate from DynamoDB to Aerospike for better cost-performance at scale. Real case study showing 60% cost reduction with improved latency and throughput.

PostgreSQL PITR lets you recover your database to any point in time — down to the second — by replaying WAL segments on top of a base backup. Here's how to set it up correctly.

Reduce AWS RDS MySQL costs by 40-60% with proven optimization strategies. Learn Reserved Instance planning, right-sizing, storage optimization, and read replica strategies.

Optimize AWS RDS PostgreSQL costs without sacrificing performance. Learn instance sizing, storage class selection, backup strategies, and Multi-AZ optimization.

RTO and RPO drive backup decisions. This guide covers mysqldump, XtraBackup, pgBackRest, WAL archiving, S3 object lock, and the 3-2-1-1-0 backup rule.

Monitor MySQL and PostgreSQL with Prometheus, Grafana, and PMM. Covers mysqld_exporter, postgres_exporter, alert rules, and production dashboard configuration.

Secure your MySQL and PostgreSQL databases — TLS, at-rest encryption, role-based access, and audit logging

Running a single PMM server is a single point of failure for your database monitoring. Here's how to set up PMM in an HA configuration with failover and shared storage.

Cut DynamoDB costs by 50% or more with capacity mode optimization, TTL strategies, and smart data modeling. Learn on-demand vs provisioned capacity decision frameworks.

Deploy PMM to get deep MySQL and PostgreSQL visibility — query analytics, dashboards, and alerting in one tool

Most MySQL maintenance tasks still rely on cron, but systemd timers offer better logging, dependency management, and failure handling. Here's how to convert your MySQL maintenance scripts to systemd services.

Use Percona XtraBackup to take hot physical backups of MySQL InnoDB — setup, verification, and restore steps

Choose a current MySQL logical backup tool from measured recovery needs, and migrate legacy mysqlpump jobs and archives without risking production data.

MySQL generates multiple log files that will fill your disk if left unmanaged. Here's how to configure logrotate correctly for MySQL error logs, slow query logs, and binary logs.