PgConf.Russia 2020

Porting applications from Oracle to Postgres is common work today. Unfortunately it is not without problems. In presentation I'll try to show the basic performance problems related to differences between Oracle and Postgres and PL/SQL and PL/pgSQL.

If you care about Postgres performance, there are a number of hardware acceleration options to help with different use cases. Intel Optane DC persistent memory creates new tier in data hierarchy allowing developers to utilize performance of traditional memory combining with volume and persistency of block storage devices. Unlike traditional DRAM-only in-memory systems, where memory is small, expensive, and volatile, Intel Optane DC persistent memory makes it possible to run larger Postgres databases (terabytes) in memory for higher performance. FPGAs are integrated circuits that can be reprogrammed dynamically to accelerate a specific workload such as SQL execution and data compression. FPGA accelerators extend Postgres with hundreds of SQL reader and writer processes that work in parallel on the FPGA. It’s similar to adding hundreds new cores to boost parallel processing on your server.

Walk-through of extending PostgreSQL with a user-defined type. The journey begins from the basics, from creating simple domain types over existing types, and continues to implementing a full-blown datatype from scratch in C.

PostgreSQL's advanced index types, GiST, GIN, and SP-GiST, are covered in enough detail to give an understanding of what each of them is good for. Support functions for each of them are shown for the example 'color' datatype.

PostgreSQL is one of the most readily extensible databases in the world. Custom data types, aggregations, functions, and more can be easily and safely written in C.

This hands-on tutorial covers the basics of writing functions, data types, and aggregates in C. It is recommended (though not strictly required) that bring their own laptops and be prepared to actually try the exercises.

Topics covered include: 1. The PostgreSQL type system 2. Creating a simple custom type in C 3. Common errors for non-C programmers 4. Creating a simple aggregate in C

There will be many opportunities for questions and discussion through the tutorial.