PGConf.Russia 2022

Disaster-tolerant cluster implies minimal data loss in the event of the main data center disaster and switching to the backup data center. The data loss takes place due to the asynchronous replication between the main data center and the backup one. However, there's a solution that can resolve the existing problem and ensure zero data loss in the case of the main data center disaster. My talk covers this solution for zero data loss.

PostgreSQL has a number of peculiarities that you need to take into account not only while maintaining your database but also when designing your database schema. Experienced PostgreSQL are well aware of vacuuming process. On the web one can find tons of materials covering its internals, configurations and monitoring. Many valuable talks about vacuum were given at numerous conferences. However, we still face the common wraparound problem when the maximum possible number of transactions (xid) is reached. It happens even on databases that are relatively small in size. In my presentation, I will share a customer case that looks interesting to me. A chain of mistakes made at different stages of the database's life cycle once caused a disaster. The database fully stopped for one week, we detected a wraparound and spotted corrupted blocks. Maintenance was problematical, and we spent sleepless nights in search of a solution. We managed to achieve a local win as we finally restored the database, but it's not the end of this story, which makes it even more interesting.

About 7 years ago, I moved from Windows-only development lead by an irresistible desire to add some parts to PostgreSQL. In this talk, I would like to cover things that were not obvious to me when I started working with the source code, the PG build and testing system. I'm going to talk about the simplest issues - routine IDE tasks, navigation, build and release process, and similar stuff. What I will share isn't the one and only truth. Some topics might relate to dummy-level problems :) I would be glad if other developers also shared the secrets of their development life. We can arrange a discussion of grep vs IDE :)

A book. Typically a reader sees only the final product, printed on paper or opened on a computer screen. In this talk I invite you to take a look at the dark side of my recently published “PostgreSQL Internals” book. Come if you are curious why the author would want to write scripts, modify the PostgreSQL source code, and program pictures.