PGConf.Russia 2025

This talk will likely be of interest to network providers who can enhance their cool features by adding something to the syntax to simplify administration, as well as anyone interested in machine learning. We will explore the SQL parsing mechanism, what, where, and how to modify it in order to introduce new syntax constructs. Additionally, I will demonstrate the capabilities of machine learning on tabular data, all within the database, using the new syntax.

Last year, we introduced built-in fault tolerance support in Postgres Pro Enterprise through BiHA. Our solution allows you to deploy a fault-tolerant Postgres cluster where, in the event of a failure of the primary node, a new primary node (leader) is automatically selected.

However, this brings up the issue of redirecting traffic to the new leader. This can be solved using our Proxima extension or an external TCP proxy server. Both solutions needed to periodically query the BiHA cluster to determine the primary node.

As an alternative, the latest version of BiHA introduced the ability to register custom functions that will be triggered by events such as leader change, node addition/removal, and others. We call this mechanism user callbacks. In this presentation, we’ll explain how the callbacks are implemented and discuss their usage.

As part of the import substitution process, we encountered the need to find a reliable alternative to Oracle. PostgreSQL was considered the primary candidate for replacement, but during the research, the "vanilla" version revealed a number of critical limitations that hindered a successful transition.

These issues included support for autonomous transactions, batch variables, and several other specifics. What is special about pg_settings? Why do we need autonomous transactions, and how do HOLD cursors relate to this? These and other topics will be discussed in our presentation, where we will also share our experience of implementing Postgres Pro Enterprise.