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Introduction

Most people who work with PostgreSQL eventually learn two commands for query tuning: EXPLAIN and EXPLAIN ANALYZE.

EXPLAIN shows the planner’s chosen execution plan, and EXPLAIN ANALYZE runs the query and adds runtime statistics. For most tuning tasks, this already provides a wealth of information.

But what many people don’t realize is that EXPLAIN has a handful of other options that can make troubleshooting much easier. In some cases they answer questions that EXPLAIN ANALYZE alone cannot.

The PostgreSQL User Group Vienna met for the very first time on Wednesday, March 18 2026, organised by Cornelia Biacsics.

Speakers:

• Ranjeet Kumar
• Jan Karremans
• Pavlo Golub

On Thursday, March 19 2026, the AMS DB came together for talks and networking.

Organised by:

PostgresHelp Production Digest #1: Planner Lies and VACUUM Myths :root { --ink: #1a1a2e; --paper: #f9f7f2; --accent: #c0392b; --rule: #d4cfc7; --code-bg: #1a1a2e; --code-text: #a8d8a8; --muted: #6b6560; --tag-bg: #eee8df; } * { margin: 0; padding: 0; box-sizing: border-box; } body { background: #f0ede6; color: var(--ink); font-family: 'DM Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.75; margin: 0; padding: 40px 20px 60px; } /* Newslett

On 12nd of March 2026, Robert Haas committed patch: Add pg_plan_advice contrib module.   Provide a facility that (1) can be used to stabilize certain plan choices so that the planner cannot reverse course without authorization and (2) can be used by knowledgeable users to insist on plan choices contrary to what the planner believes … Continue reading "Waiting for PostgreSQL 19 – Add pg_plan_advice contrib module."

The previous article showed that PostgreSQL 18 makes optimizer statistics portable, but left one gap open:

It's not worth trying to inject relpages as the planner checks the actual file size and scales it proportionally.

Recently during one of the Oracle to PostgreSQL migration with enterprise customer while designing cutover runbook, we were evaluating steps to perform Sequence value reset to match it as per Source so that every new value request using NextVal is an new one and does not incur transactional failure.

I’ve been busy with an internal project at work, but have responded to a few pg_clickhouse reports for a couple crashes and vulnerabilities, thanks to pen testing and a community security report. These changes drive the release of v0.1.5 today.

Get it from the usual sources:

Welcome to Part three of our series for building a High Availability Postgres cluster using Patroni! Part one focused entirely on establishing the DCS using etcd to provide the critical DCS backbone for the cluster, and part two added Patroni and Postgres to the software stack.

Yes, it was St. Patrick’s Day, and also Illinois Primaries, and the weather was beyond bad, but we still had a good crowd!

Pizza always comes first :), because nobody is going to go hungry! Whether you stay for Postgres or not is up to you, so I am assuming that when people are coming and staying, it’s not just for pizza

Introduction: The End of “Just SSH Into the Box”

There was a time when High Availability in PostgreSQL came with an implicit assumption: if something important happened, an administrator could log into the server, inspect the state of the cluster, and run the command that steadied the ship. That assumption is fading fast. In many modern enterprises, direct OS-level access is no longer part of the operating model.

On 10th of March 2026, Álvaro Herrera committed patch: Introduce the REPACK command   REPACK absorbs the functionality of VACUUM FULL and CLUSTER in a single command. Because this functionality is completely different from regular VACUUM, having it separate from VACUUM makes it easier for users to understand; as for CLUSTER, the term is heavily … Continue reading "Waiting for PostgreSQL 19 – Introduce the REPACK command"

 

PostgreSQL major version upgrades are one of those tasks that every DBA has to deal with regularly. They are routine — but they are also full of small, potentially dangerous details that can turn a straightforward maintenance window into an incident. Having performed hundreds of upgrades across different environments over the years, I want to share a comprehensive, practical guide to upgrading from PostgreSQL 17 to 18, with particular focus on what has changed and what has finally improved in the upgrade process itself.

I'm planning to hold a single hacking workshop for April and May combined, covering Masahiko Sawada's talk, Breaking away from FREEZE and Wraparound, given at PGCon 2022. If you're interested in joining us, please sign up using this form and I will send you an invite to one of the sessions. Thanks to Sawada-san for agreeing to join us.

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On 4th of March 2026, Amit Kapila committed patch: Allow table exclusions in publications via EXCEPT TABLE.   Extend CREATE PUBLICATION ... FOR ALL TABLES to support the EXCEPT TABLE syntax. This allows one or more tables to be excluded. The publisher will not send the data of excluded tables to the subscriber.   To … Continue reading "Waiting for PostgreSQL 19 – Allow table exclusions in publications via EXCEPT TABLE."

Most RAG systems were built for a specific workload: abundant reads, relatively few writes, and a document corpus that doesn't change much. That model made sense for early retrieval pipelines, but it doesn't reflect how production agent systems actually behave. In practice, multiple agents are constantly writing new observations, updating shared memory, and regenerating embeddings, often at the same time. The storage layer that worked fine for document search starts showing cracks under that kind of pressure.The failures that result aren't always obvious.

Like much of the world, I have been exploring capabilities and realities of LLMs and other generative tools for a while now. I am focused on using the technology with the framing of my technology-focused work, plus my other common scoping on data privacy and ethics. I want basic coding help (SQL, Python, Docker, PowerShell, DAX), ideation, writing boilerplate code, and leveraging existing procedures. Naturally, I want this available offline in a private and secure environment.

Obligatory selfie from SCaLE 23x

The 23rd edition of the Southern California Linux Expo, or SCaLE 23x, took place from March 5-8, 2026, in Pasadena, California. It was another fantastic community-run event with talks you don't get to hear anywhere else, and that incredible open-source community spirit.

On 26th of February 2026, Andrew Dunstan committed patch: Add non-text output formats to pg_dumpall   pg_dumpall can now produce output in custom, directory, or tar formats in addition to plain text SQL scripts. When using non-text formats, pg_dumpall creates a directory containing: - toc.glo: global data (roles and tablespaces) in custom format - map.dat: … Continue reading "Waiting for PostgreSQL 19 – Add non-text output formats to pg_dumpall"

Skip the OLAP stack. See how we built a product analytics warehouse on vanilla Postgres with materialized views, pg_cron, and copy-on-write branches.

pgNow is a lightweight PostgreSQL diagnostic tool developed by Redgate that provides quick visibility into database performance without requiring agents or complex setup. It connects directly to a PostgreSQL instance and delivers real-time insights into query workloads, active sessions, index usage, configuration health, and vacuum activity, helping DBAs quickly identify performance bottlenecks.