PODCAST

Postgres FM

Nikolay Samokhvalov and Michael Christofides

A weekly podcast about all things PostgreSQL

technology tech news

All Episodes

31:03

Archiving

Postgres FM ·

2025/12/19

Nik and Michael discuss a listener question about archiving a database. Here are some links to things they mentioned: Listener request to talk about archiving https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFRK8PiIvTg&lc=UgyiFrO37gEgUaVhRgN4AaABAg Our episode on “Is pg_dump a backup tool?” https://postgres.fm/episodes/is-pg_dump-a-backup-tool ~~~What did you like or not like? What should we discuss next time? Let us know via a YouTube comment, on social media, or by commenting on our Google

44:40

max_connections vs migrations

Postgres FM ·

2025/12/05

Nik and Michael discuss max_connections, especially in the context of increasing it to solve problems like migrations intermittently failing(!) Here are some links to things they mentioned: max_connections https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/runtime-config-connection.html#GUC-MAX-CONNECTIONSTweet about deployments vs connections issue https://x.com/brankopetric00/status/1991394329886077090Nik tweet in response https://x.com/samokhvalov/status/1991465573684027443Analyzing the Limits of

45:13

What's new in EXPLAIN

Postgres FM ·

2025/11/21

Nik and Michael discuss the various changes to EXPLAIN that arrived in Postgres 18. Here are some links to things they mentioned: EXPLAIN (official docs) https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/sql-explain.htmlUsing EXPLAIN (official docs) https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/using-explain.html EXPLAIN glossary (pgMustard site) https://www.pgmustard.com/docs/explainPostgres 18 release notes https://www.postgresql.org/docs/release/18.0/Enable BUFFERS with EXPLAIN ANALYZE by default

38:47

Tens of TB per hour

Postgres FM ·

2025/11/14

Nik talks Michael through a recent benchmark he worked with Maxim Boguk on, to see how quickly they could provision a replica. Here are some links to things they mentioned:Ultra-fast replica creation with pgBackRest (blog post by Maxim Boguk and Nik) https://postgres.ai/blog/20251105-postgres-marathon-2-012-ultra-fast-replica-creation-pgbackrestCopying a database episode https://postgres.fm/episodes/copying-a-databaseAdd snapshot backup support for PostgreSQL in wal-g (draft PR by Andrey

39:49

Gapless sequences

Postgres FM ·

2025/10/31

Nik and Michael discuss the concept of gapless sequences — when you might want one, why sequences in Postgres can have gaps, and an idea or two if you do want them.And one quick clarification: changing the CACHE option in CREATE SEQUENCE can lead to even more gaps, the docs mention it explicitly. Here are some links to things they mentioned:CREATE SEQUENCE https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/sql-createsequence.htmlSequence Manipulation Functions

38:22

LWLocks

Postgres FM ·

2025/10/17

Nik and Michael discuss lightweight locks in Postgres — how they differ to (heavier) locks, some occasions they can be troublesome, and some resources for working out what to do if you hit issues. Here are some links to things they mentioned:Wait Events of Type LWLock https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/monitoring-stats.html#WAIT-EVENT-LWLOCK-TABLEOur episode on (heavier) locks https://postgres.fm/episodes/locksNik’s new marathon posts

39:00

User management

Postgres FM ·

2025/10/03

Nik and Michael discuss user management in Postgres — how roles work, making administration easier, setting passwords, and avoiding them being logged. Here are some links to things they mentioned:Roles https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/user-manag.html Privileges https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/ddl-priv.htmlALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/sql-alterdefaultprivileges.htmlGRANT https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/sql-grant.htmlREASSIGN OWNED

55:43

Postgres 18

Postgres FM ·

2025/09/26

Nik and Michael discuss the newly released Postgres 18 — the bigger things it includes, some of their personal highlights, and some thoughts towards the future. Here are some links to things they mentioned:Postgres 18 announcement https://www.postgresql.org/about/news/postgresql-18-released-3142Postgres 18 release notes https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/release-18.htmlSkip scan episode with Peter Geoghegan https://postgres.fm/episodes/skip-scanEasier Postgres fine-tuning with

52:59

Gadget's use of Postgres

Postgres FM ·

2025/09/19

Nik and Michael are joined by Harry Brundage from Gadget to talk about their recent zero-downtime major version upgrade, how they use Postgres more generally, their dream database, and some challenges of providing Postgres as an abstracted service at scale. Here are some links to things they mentioned:Harry Brundage https://postgres.fm/people/harry-brundageGadget https://gadget.devZero downtime Postgres upgrades using logical replication (blog post)

49:36

turbopuffer

Postgres FM ·

2025/09/12

Nik and Michael are joined by Simon Eskildsen from turbopuffer — among other things, they discuss ANN index types, tradeoffs that can make sense for search workloads, and when it can make sense to move search out of Postgres. Here are some links to things they mentioned:Simon Eskildsen https://postgres.fm/people/simon-eskildsenturbopuffer https://turbopuffer.comUse ULID Idempotency Keys (tip 6 in this blog post from Shopify)

46:17

When not to use Postgres

Postgres FM ·

2025/09/05

Nik and Michael discuss when not to use Postgres — specifically use cases where it still makes sense to store data in another system. Here are some links to things they mentioned:Just use Postgres (blog post by Ethan McCue) https://mccue.dev/pages/8-16-24-just-use-postgresJust Use Postgres for Everything (blog post by Stephan Schmidt) https://www.amazingcto.com/postgres-for-everythingReal-time analytics episode https://postgres.fm/episodes/real-time-analyticsCrunchy Data Joins Snowflake

46:13

Disks

Postgres FM ·

2025/08/29

Nik and Michael discuss disks in relation to Postgres — why they matter, how saturation can happen, some modern nuances, and how to prepare to avoid issues. Here are some links to things they mentioned:Nik’s tweet demonstrating a NOTIFY hot spot https://x.com/samokhvalov/status/1959468091035009245Postgres LISTEN/NOTIFY does not scale (blog post by Recall ai) https://www.recall.ai/blog/postgres-listen-notify-does-not-scaletrack_io_timing

41:21

Multi-column indexes

Postgres FM ·

2025/08/22

Nik and Michael discuss multi-column indexes in Postgres — what they are, how to think about them, and some guidance around using them effectively. Here are some links to things they mentioned:Multicolumn Indexes (docs) https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/indexes-multicolumn.htmlOur episode on Index-only scans https://postgres.fm/episodes/index-only-scansCombining Multiple Indexes (docs) https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/indexes-bitmap-scans.htmlEnable BUFFERS with EXPLAIN ANALYZE

59:13

Self-driving Postgres

Postgres FM ·

2025/08/15

Nikolay and Michael discuss self-driving Postgres — what it could mean, using self-driving cars as a reference, and ideas for things to build and optimize for in this area. Here are some links to things they mentioned:Nikolay’s blog post on Self-driving Postgres https://postgres.ai/blog/20250725-self-driving-postgresSAE J3016 levels of driving automation https://www.sae.org/news/2019/01/sae-updates-j3016-automated-driving-graphicOracle Autonomous Database

26:22

caSe-inSENsiTive

Postgres FM ·

2025/08/08

Nikolay and Michael discuss case-insensitive data — when we want to treat columns as case-insensitive, and the pros and cons of using citext, functions like lower(), or a custom collation. Here are some links to things they mentioned:citext https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/citext.htmlOur episode on over-indexing https://postgres.fm/episodes/over-indexingNondeterministic collations https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/collation.html#COLLATION-NONDETERMINISTICHow to migrate from

44:40

Monitoring from Postgres AI

Postgres FM ·

2025/07/25

Nikolay talks to Michael about Postgres AI's new monitoring tool — what it is, how its different to other tools, and some of the thinking behind it. Here are some links to things they mentioned:postgres_ai monitoring https://gitlab.com/postgres-ai/postgres_aiDB Lab 4.0 announcement https://github.com/postgres-ai/database-lab-engine/releases/tag/v4.0.0pganalyze https://pganalyze.compostgres-checkup https://gitlab.com/postgres-ai/postgres-checkupPercona Monitoring and Management (PMM)

55:43

MultiXact member space exhaustion

Postgres FM ·

2025/07/18

Nikolay and Michael are joined by Andrew Johnson and Nate Brennand from Metronome to discuss MultiXact member space exhaustion — what it is, how they managed to hit it, and some tips to prevent running into it at scale. Here are some links to things they mentioned:Nate Brennand https://postgres.fm/people/nate-brennandAndrew Johnson https://postgres.fm/people/andrew-johnsonMetronome https://metronome.comRoot Cause Analysis: PostgreSQL MultiXact member exhaustion incidents (blog post by

79:27

Multigres

Postgres FM ·

2025/07/11

Nikolay and Michael are joined by Sugu Sougoumarane to discuss Multigres — a project he's joined Supabase to lead, building an adaptation of Vitess for Postgres! Here are some links to things they mentioned:Sugu Sougoumarane https://postgres.fm/people/sugu-sougoumaraneSupabase https://supabase.comAnnouncing Multigres https://supabase.com/blog/multigres-vitess-for-postgresVitess https://github.com/vitessio/vitessSPQR https://github.com/pg-sharding/spqrCitus

50:18

Multi-tenant options

Postgres FM ·

2025/06/20

Nikolay and Michael are joined by Gwen Shapira to discuss multi-tenant architectures — the high level options, the pros and cons of each, and how they're trying to help with Nile. Here are some links to things they mentioned:Gwen Shapira https://postgres.fm/people/gwen-shapiraNile https://www.thenile.devSaaS Tenant Isolation Strategies (AWS whitepaper) https://docs.aws.amazon.com/whitepapers/latest/saas-tenant-isolation-strategies/saas-tenant-isolation-strategies.html Row Level Security

38:51

Mean vs p99

Postgres FM ·

2025/06/13

Nikolay and Michael discuss looking at queries by mean time — when it makes sense, why ordering by a percentile (like p99) might be better, and the merits of approximating percentiles in pg_stat_statements using the standard deviation column. Here are some links to things they mentioned:Approximate the p99 of a query with pg_stat_statements (blog post by Michael) https://www.pgmustard.com/blog/approximate-the-p99-of-a-query-with-pgstatstatementspg_stat_statements

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Postgres FM

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