Database Insights

Decode PostgreSQL wait events to diagnose lock contention, I/O bottlenecks, and CPU pressure in production

How to use pg_stat_statements to identify slow queries, analyze execution stats, and optimize PostgreSQL performance

2025 was the year databases competed on operational simplicity. Serverless databases matured, pgvector merged vector search into PostgreSQL, and CDC became standard infrastructure. Here's what mattered and what's next.

PostgreSQL WAL retention is a balancing act — too little and standbys fall behind; too much and you risk disk exhaustion. Here's how to configure wal_keep_size and manage replication slots safely.

Compare Liquibase and Flyway for production database schema management. Learn changelog formats, rollback strategies, team workflows, and CI/CD integration patterns.

Five counterintuitive database performance truths every engineer gets wrong — over-indexing costs, N+1 queries, connection pool sizing, replica reads, and EXPLAIN limitations.

Configure pgBouncer correctly for your PostgreSQL workload. Compare transaction vs session pooling, size your pool correctly, and monitor pool health in production.

Master PostgreSQL EXPLAIN ANALYZE output: understand node types, cost estimates, actual vs estimated rows, and identify the root cause of slow queries.

Teams take down production for hours with migrations that could be zero-downtime operations. Learn to use gh-ost and CREATE INDEX CONCURRENTLY, implement rollback plans, and apply the expand-contract pattern for breaking changes.

Build selective, cross-version PostgreSQL replication with logical replication. Learn publications, subscriptions, conflict handling, and real-world use cases.

Query remote PostgreSQL and MySQL databases from PostgreSQL with Foreign Data Wrappers. Covers postgres_fdw setup, IMPORT FOREIGN SCHEMA, and EXPLAIN pushdown verification.

Survey essential PostgreSQL extensions: pg_stat_statements for query analysis, pg_trgm for fuzzy search, pg_cron for scheduled jobs, pg_buffercache for cache inspection.