Michael Christofides
Founder of pgMustard
Appears in 133 Episodes
Why is Postgres popular?
Nikolay and Michael discuss why (and how) Postgres has been gaining popularity in recent years.
Index maintenance
Nikolay and Michael discuss index maintenance — how do we know if or when we need it, and what we need to do.
Query macro analysis intro
Nikolay and Michael discuss query macro analysis — at the whole system level as opposed to an individual query.
WAL and checkpoint tuning
Nikolay talks Michael through a host of nuances about WAL and checkpoint tuning.
Intro to query optimization
Nikolay and Michael discuss query optimization — specifically for a single query, not at the system level.
How to become a DBA
Michael and Nikolay discuss various tasks, expectations, and roles involved in both junior and senior DBA roles, as well as some good learning resources to help along ...
Monitoring checklist
Nikolay takes us through a checklist of important things to monitor, while Michael tries to keep up.
Vacuum
Nikolay and Michael discuss vacuum — what it is, why we need it, some improvements in recent years, and even a creative use for vacuum full.
NULLs: the good, the bad, the ugly, and the unknown
Nikolay and Michael discuss NULLs — including some problems they can cause, a new feature coming in Postgres 15, and some learning resources we like.
BUFFERS by default
Nikolay and Michael discuss BUFFERS — what they are, how they can be very useful for query optimisation, and whether they should be on by default (spoiler alert, we th...
BRIN indexes
Nikolay and Michael discuss BRIN indexes — how are they different to the default B-Tree index, when are they useful, and how they've improved in PostgreSQL 14.
Managed services vs. DIY
Nikolay and Michael discuss some options for hosting Postgres — what are the main reasons for going for a managed service, versus managing it in-house (DIY).
Slow queries and slow transactions
Nikolay and Michael introduce Postgres FM, and then discuss slow queries and slow transactions — what counts as slow, how can we monitor them, and what have we seen in...