Working with queries - DBA perspective

Optimisation of queries can have a significant impact on database performance. In my talk, I will review the tools that we use in our practice and discuss some use-cases. This talk is of interest to database administrators or developers who would like to optimise their database performance and learn new query optimisation techniques.

Several production cases during one night

We maintain large PostgreSQL databases with the total data volume exceeding 180 TB. Every instance in the cluster gets a workload of 15 thousand requests per second. These circumstances certainly impose limitations on the classical approach to updating database structures. The cost of a DBA error gets higher, as even a small error can lead to a sleepless night) In my talk, I will cover our existing limitations for changes in the production environment, non-classical DBMS behavior under heavy workloads, and will discuss PostgreSQL in general.

CREATE INDEX CONCURRENTLY implementation details

From the very beginning of 2021, I'm fixing a bug in CREATE INDEX CONCURRENTLY. This bug manifests extremely seldom. I could not find any traces of it in mailing lists ever since the introduction of the feature in 8.2. Yet the bug affected our systems, so I decided to fix it. This is how the9i detective bug-hunting story started. In this story, I'll share details of the implementation of transactions and lock mechanics.

Why Crew Resource Management in Database Teams

Crew Resource Management is a field which has become critical in many fields including aviation and nuclear power. However in IT, this field has not been well implemented. In this talk we will discuss what crew resource management is, what kinds of problems it solves, and why all database teams should implement it.

Several PostgreSQL-related case studies will be discussed and both technical and human factors will be part of the case studies.