Blog Columns
Six thematic columns, each with its own dedicated RSS feed.
Database Guru
75posts
Database news, industry surveys, architecture, and best practices.
Cloud-Exiter
66posts
Cloud economics, repatriation, and building sovereign infrastructure.
Postgres Mage
128posts
PostgreSQL ecosystem, internals, extensions, and production tuning.
AI Agent Explorer
98posts
Practical engineering with coding agents, LLMs, AI4DB, and DB4AI.
Travel Notes
12posts
Trips, hikes, landscapes, and field notes across mountains and seas.
Miscellaneous
41posts
Essays, reflections, and personal writing inside and outside of tech.
PostgreSQL Wins 2024 Database of the Year Award! (Fifth Time)
DB-Engines officially announced today that PostgreSQL has once again been crowned "Database of the Year." This is the fifth time PG has received this honor in the past seven years. If not for …
2023 Year-End Summary: Thirty and Established
In 2023, I turned thirty. As Confucius said, "At thirty, one establishes oneself." I've managed to accomplish something - started a family, built a career, gained some technical reputation. A year-end …
MySQL's ACID is a real mess
MySQL's transaction ACID has flaws and doesn't match documentation promises. This may lead to serious correctness issues - use with caution.
S3: Elite to Mediocre
S3 is no longer "cheap" with the evolution of hardware, and other challengers such as cloudflare R2.
Database in K8S: Pros & Cons
Whether databases should be housed in Kubernetes/Docker remains highly controversial. It has fundamental drawbacks with stateful services.
From Cost-Reduction Jokes to Real Cost Reduction and Efficiency
Alibaba-Cloud and Didi had major outages one after another. This article discusses how to move from cost-reduction jokes to real cost reduction and efficiency — what costs should we really reduce, …
PostgreSQL Convention 2024
No rules, no standards. Some developer conventions for PostgreSQL 16.
Are Specialized Vector Databases Dead?
Vector storage and retrieval is a real need, but specialized vector databases are already dead. Small needs are solved by OpenAI directly, standard needs are captured by existing mature databases with …
Reclaim Hardware Bonus from the Cloud
Hardware is interesting again, developments in CPUs and SSDs remain largely unnoticed by the majority of devs. A whole generation of developers is obscured by cloud hype and marketing noise.
What Can We Learn from Alibaba-Cloud's Global Outage?
Alibaba-Cloud's epic global outage after Double 11 set an industry record. How should we evaluate this incident, and what lessons can we learn from it?
Harvesting Alibaba-Cloud Wool, Building Your Digital Homestead
Alibaba-Cloud's Double 11 offered a great deal: 2C2G3M ECS servers for ¥99/year, low price for three years. This article shows how to use this decent ECS to build your own digital homestead.
Are Databases Really Being Strangled?
Many "domestic databases" are just shoddy, inferior products that can't be helped. Xinchuang domestic OS/databases are essentially IT pre-made meals in schools. Users hold their noses while migrating, …
PostgreSQL Macro Query Optimization with pg_stat_statements
Query optimization is one of the core responsibilities of DBAs. This article introduces how to use metrics provided by pg_stat_statements for macro-level PostgreSQL query optimization.
Pigsty v2.5: Ubuntu & PG16
Pigsty v2.5 adds Ubuntu/Debian support (bullseye, bookworm, jammy, focal), new extensions including pointcloud and imgsmlr, and redesigned monitoring dashboards.
Which EL-Series OS Distribution Is Best?
RHEL-series OS distribution compatibility level: RHEL = Rocky ≈ Anolis > Alma > Oracle >> Euler. Recommend using RockyLinux 8.8, or Anolis 8.8 for domestic requirements.
FerretDB: PostgreSQL Disguised as MongoDB
FerretDB aims to provide a truly open-source MongoDB alternative based on PostgreSQL.
How to Use pg_filedump for Data Recovery?
Backups are a DBA's lifeline — but what if your PostgreSQL database has already exploded and you have no backups? Maybe pg_filedump can help you!
Pigsty v2.4: Monitor Cloud RDS
Pigsty v2.4 delivers PostgreSQL 16 GA support, RDS/PolarDB monitoring, Redis Sentinel HA, and a wave of new extensions including Apache AGE, zhparser, and pg_embedding.
Modb Interviews Industry Leaders - Feng Ruohang
Recently, a historic debate in the database industry has sparked heated discussion. The post-90s entrepreneur Feng Ruohang, known as the "ace debater" in the database community, has come into public …
What Kind of Self-Reliance Do Infra Software Need?
When we talk about self-reliance and control, what are we really talking about? Operational self-reliance vs. R&D self-reliance - what nations/users truly need is the former, not flashy …
Pigsty v2.3: Richer App Ecosystem
Pigsty v2.3 adds FerretDB MongoDB support, NocoDB integration, L2 VIP for node clusters, PostgreSQL security patches, and Redis 7.2.
Pigsty v2.2: Monitoring System Reborn
Pigsty v2.2 delivers a complete monitoring dashboard overhaul built on Grafana 10, a 42-node production simulation sandbox, Pigsty's own RPM repos, and UOS compatibility.
Cloud Computing Mudslide: Deconstructing Public Cloud with Data
Once upon a time, "going to cloud" was almost politically correct in tech circles, but few people use hard data to analyze the trade-offs involved. I'm willing to be this skeptic: let me use hard data …
DHH: Cloud-Exit Saves Over Ten Million, More Than Expected!
DHH migrated their seven cloud applications from AWS to their own hardware. 2024 is the first year of full savings realization. They're delighted to find the savings exceed initial estimates.
PostgreSQL Wins 2024 Database of the Year Award! (Fifth Time)
DB-Engines officially announced today that PostgreSQL has once again been crowned "Database of the Year." This is the fifth time PG has received this honor in the past seven years. If not for …
2023 Year-End Summary: Thirty and Established
In 2023, I turned thirty. As Confucius said, "At thirty, one establishes oneself." I've managed to accomplish something - started a family, built a career, gained some technical reputation. A year-end …
MySQL's ACID is a real mess
MySQL's transaction ACID has flaws and doesn't match documentation promises. This may lead to serious correctness issues - use with caution.
S3: Elite to Mediocre
S3 is no longer "cheap" with the evolution of hardware, and other challengers such as cloudflare R2.
Database in K8S: Pros & Cons
Whether databases should be housed in Kubernetes/Docker remains highly controversial. It has fundamental drawbacks with stateful services.
From Cost-Reduction Jokes to Real Cost Reduction and Efficiency
Alibaba-Cloud and Didi had major outages one after another. This article discusses how to move from cost-reduction jokes to real cost reduction and efficiency — what costs should we really reduce, …
PostgreSQL Convention 2024
No rules, no standards. Some developer conventions for PostgreSQL 16.
Are Specialized Vector Databases Dead?
Vector storage and retrieval is a real need, but specialized vector databases are already dead. Small needs are solved by OpenAI directly, standard needs are captured by existing mature databases with …
Reclaim Hardware Bonus from the Cloud
Hardware is interesting again, developments in CPUs and SSDs remain largely unnoticed by the majority of devs. A whole generation of developers is obscured by cloud hype and marketing noise.
What Can We Learn from Alibaba-Cloud's Global Outage?
Alibaba-Cloud's epic global outage after Double 11 set an industry record. How should we evaluate this incident, and what lessons can we learn from it?
Harvesting Alibaba-Cloud Wool, Building Your Digital Homestead
Alibaba-Cloud's Double 11 offered a great deal: 2C2G3M ECS servers for ¥99/year, low price for three years. This article shows how to use this decent ECS to build your own digital homestead.
Are Databases Really Being Strangled?
Many "domestic databases" are just shoddy, inferior products that can't be helped. Xinchuang domestic OS/databases are essentially IT pre-made meals in schools. Users hold their noses while migrating, …
PostgreSQL Macro Query Optimization with pg_stat_statements
Query optimization is one of the core responsibilities of DBAs. This article introduces how to use metrics provided by pg_stat_statements for macro-level PostgreSQL query optimization.
Pigsty v2.5: Ubuntu & PG16
Pigsty v2.5 adds Ubuntu/Debian support (bullseye, bookworm, jammy, focal), new extensions including pointcloud and imgsmlr, and redesigned monitoring dashboards.
Which EL-Series OS Distribution Is Best?
RHEL-series OS distribution compatibility level: RHEL = Rocky ≈ Anolis > Alma > Oracle >> Euler. Recommend using RockyLinux 8.8, or Anolis 8.8 for domestic requirements.
FerretDB: PostgreSQL Disguised as MongoDB
FerretDB aims to provide a truly open-source MongoDB alternative based on PostgreSQL.
How to Use pg_filedump for Data Recovery?
Backups are a DBA's lifeline — but what if your PostgreSQL database has already exploded and you have no backups? Maybe pg_filedump can help you!
Pigsty v2.4: Monitor Cloud RDS
Pigsty v2.4 delivers PostgreSQL 16 GA support, RDS/PolarDB monitoring, Redis Sentinel HA, and a wave of new extensions including Apache AGE, zhparser, and pg_embedding.
Modb Interviews Industry Leaders - Feng Ruohang
Recently, a historic debate in the database industry has sparked heated discussion. The post-90s entrepreneur Feng Ruohang, known as the "ace debater" in the database community, has come into public …
What Kind of Self-Reliance Do Infra Software Need?
When we talk about self-reliance and control, what are we really talking about? Operational self-reliance vs. R&D self-reliance - what nations/users truly need is the former, not flashy …
Pigsty v2.3: Richer App Ecosystem
Pigsty v2.3 adds FerretDB MongoDB support, NocoDB integration, L2 VIP for node clusters, PostgreSQL security patches, and Redis 7.2.
Pigsty v2.2: Monitoring System Reborn
Pigsty v2.2 delivers a complete monitoring dashboard overhaul built on Grafana 10, a 42-node production simulation sandbox, Pigsty's own RPM repos, and UOS compatibility.
Cloud Computing Mudslide: Deconstructing Public Cloud with Data
Once upon a time, "going to cloud" was almost politically correct in tech circles, but few people use hard data to analyze the trade-offs involved. I'm willing to be this skeptic: let me use hard data …
DHH: Cloud-Exit Saves Over Ten Million, More Than Expected!
DHH migrated their seven cloud applications from AWS to their own hardware. 2024 is the first year of full savings realization. They're delighted to find the savings exceed initial estimates.
PostgreSQL Wins 2024 Database of the Year Award! (Fifth Time)
Today, the famous database popularity ranking DB-Engine announced the 2024 Database of the Year. PostgreSQL has won this honor for the fifth time. Of course, PostgreSQL was also the Database of the Year in 2023, 2019, 2018, and 2017. If Snowflake …
Today, the famous database popularity ranking DB-Engine announced the 2024 Database of the Year. PostgreSQL has won this honor for the fifth time. Of course, PostgreSQL was also the Database of the Year in 2023, 2019, 2018, and 2017. If Snowflake …
2023 Year-End Summary: Thirty and Established
Thirty and Established In 2023, I turned thirty. As Confucius said, “At thirty, one establishes oneself.” I’ve managed to accomplish something - started a family, built a career, gained some technical reputation. On the last day of 2023, let me take …
Thirty and Established In 2023, I turned thirty. As Confucius said, “At thirty, one establishes oneself.” I’ve managed to accomplish something - started a family, built a career, gained some technical reputation. On the last day of 2023, let me take …
MySQL's ACID is a real mess
MySQL was once the world’s most popular open-source relational database. However, popularity doesn’t mean advanced, and popular things can have big problems. JEPSEN’s evaluation of MySQL’s isolation levels pierced through this veneer — in …
MySQL was once the world’s most popular open-source relational database. However, popularity doesn’t mean advanced, and popular things can have big problems. JEPSEN’s evaluation of MySQL’s isolation levels pierced through this veneer — in …
S3: Elite to Mediocre
WeChat Object storage (S3) has been a defining service of cloud computing, once hailed as a paragon of cost reduction in the cloud era. Unfortunately, with the evolution of hardware and the emergence of resources cloud (Cloudflare R2) and …
WeChat Object storage (S3) has been a defining service of cloud computing, once hailed as a paragon of cost reduction in the cloud era. Unfortunately, with the evolution of hardware and the emergence of resources cloud (Cloudflare R2) and …
Database in K8S: Pros & Cons
Medium ｜Wechat Whether databases should be housed in Kubernetes/Docker remains highly controversial. While Kubernetes (k8s) excels in managing stateless applications, it has fundamental drawbacks with stateful services, especially databases like …
Medium ｜Wechat Whether databases should be housed in Kubernetes/Docker remains highly controversial. While Kubernetes (k8s) excels in managing stateless applications, it has fundamental drawbacks with stateful services, especially databases like …
From Cost-Reduction Jokes to Real Cost Reduction and Efficiency
Year-end is performance rush time, but internet giants are having major incidents one after another. They’ve turned “cost reduction and efficiency improvement” into literal “cost reduction jokes” — this is no longer just a meme, but official …
Year-end is performance rush time, but internet giants are having major incidents one after another. They’ve turned “cost reduction and efficiency improvement” into literal “cost reduction jokes” — this is no longer just a meme, but official …
PostgreSQL Convention 2024
Background 0x01 Naming Convention 0x01 Design Convention 0x01 Query Convention 0x01 Admin Convention Roughly translated from PostgreSQL Convention 2024 with Google. 0x00 Background No Rules, No Lines The functions of PostgreSQL are very powerful, …
Background 0x01 Naming Convention 0x01 Design Convention 0x01 Query Convention 0x01 Admin Convention Roughly translated from PostgreSQL Convention 2024 with Google. 0x00 Background No Rules, No Lines The functions of PostgreSQL are very powerful, …
Are Specialized Vector Databases Dead?
Vector storage and retrieval is a real need, but specialized vector databases are already dead. The ecological niche left for specialized vector databases might support one company’s survival, but trying to build an industry around AI stories is …
Vector storage and retrieval is a real need, but specialized vector databases are already dead. The ecological niche left for specialized vector databases might support one company’s survival, but trying to build an industry around AI stories is …
Reclaim Hardware Bonus from the Cloud
Hardware is interesting again, with the AI wave fueling a GPU frenzy. However, the intrigue isn’t limited to GPUs —— developments in CPUs and SSDs remain largely unnoticed by the majority of devs. A whole generation of developers is obscured by cloud …
Hardware is interesting again, with the AI wave fueling a GPU frenzy. However, the intrigue isn’t limited to GPUs —— developments in CPUs and SSDs remain largely unnoticed by the majority of devs. A whole generation of developers is obscured by cloud …
What Can We Learn from Alibaba-Cloud's Global Outage?
A year after the last major incident, Alibaba-Cloud suffered another massive outage, creating an unprecedented record in the cloud computing industry — simultaneous failures across all global regions and all services. Since Alibaba-Cloud refuses to …
A year after the last major incident, Alibaba-Cloud suffered another massive outage, creating an unprecedented record in the cloud computing industry — simultaneous failures across all global regions and all services. Since Alibaba-Cloud refuses to …
Harvesting Alibaba-Cloud Wool, Building Your Digital Homestead
Alibaba-Cloud’s Double 11 offered a great deal: 2C/2G/3M ECS servers with a list price of ¥1500/year for just ¥99/year for three years (¥99 annual renewal available until 2026), plus they’re reportedly giving every Chinese university student a free …
Alibaba-Cloud’s Double 11 offered a great deal: 2C/2G/3M ECS servers with a list price of ¥1500/year for just ¥99/year for three years (¥99 annual renewal available until 2026), plus they’re reportedly giving every Chinese university student a free …
Are Databases Really Being Strangled?
WeChat | Zhihu If “cloud databases” can be considered passable products with slightly underwhelming cost ROI, then many “domestic databases” are simply shoddy, inferior products that can’t be helped. Xinchuang OS/databases are essentially IT …
WeChat | Zhihu If “cloud databases” can be considered passable products with slightly underwhelming cost ROI, then many “domestic databases” are simply shoddy, inferior products that can’t be helped. Xinchuang OS/databases are essentially IT …
PostgreSQL Macro Query Optimization with pg_stat_statements
In production online databases, slow queries not only affect end-user experience but also waste system resources, increase resource saturation, cause deadlocks and transaction conflicts, increase database connection pressure, and lead to master-slave …
In production online databases, slow queries not only affect end-user experience but also waste system resources, increase resource saturation, cause deadlocks and transaction conflicts, increase database connection pressure, and lead to master-slave …
Pigsty v2.5: Ubuntu & PG16
GitHub Release | Release Note On Programmer’s Day (10/24), Pigsty v2.5.0 is released! This version adds support for Ubuntu and Debian operating systems. Combined with existing EL7/8/9 support, we’ve achieved a grand slam of mainstream Linux …
GitHub Release | Release Note On Programmer’s Day (10/24), Pigsty v2.5.0 is released! This version adds support for Ubuntu and Debian operating systems. Combined with existing EL7/8/9 support, we’ve achieved a grand slam of mainstream Linux …
Which EL-Series OS Distribution Is Best?
Many users have asked me what operating system is best for running databases. Especially considering that CentOS 7.9 will reach EOL next year, many users should need to upgrade their OS, so today I’m sharing some experience. TL;DR In short, if you’re …
Many users have asked me what operating system is best for running databases. Especially considering that CentOS 7.9 will reach EOL next year, many users should need to upgrade their OS, so today I’m sharing some experience. TL;DR In short, if you’re …
FerretDB: PostgreSQL Disguised as MongoDB
MongoDB was once an amazing technology that allowed developers to break free from relational database “schema constraints” and quickly build applications. However, over time, MongoDB abandoned its open-source nature, making it unavailable for many …
MongoDB was once an amazing technology that allowed developers to break free from relational database “schema constraints” and quickly build applications. However, over time, MongoDB abandoned its open-source nature, making it unavailable for many …
How to Use pg_filedump for Data Recovery?
Backups are a DBA’s lifeline — but what if your PostgreSQL database has already exploded and you have no backups? Maybe pg_filedump can help you! Recently encountered a rather outrageous case. The situation was this: a user’s PostgreSQL database was …
Backups are a DBA’s lifeline — but what if your PostgreSQL database has already exploded and you have no backups? Maybe pg_filedump can help you! Recently encountered a rather outrageous case. The situation was this: a user’s PostgreSQL database was …
Pigsty v2.4: Monitor Cloud RDS
GitHub Release | Release Note PostgreSQL released its new major version 16 today, bringing a series of improvements. Pigsty followed up within 1 hour of release with Pigsty v2.4, providing complete support for PostgreSQL 16 GA. Additionally, v2.4 …
GitHub Release | Release Note PostgreSQL released its new major version 16 today, bringing a series of improvements. Pigsty followed up within 1 hour of release with Pigsty v2.4, providing complete support for PostgreSQL 16 GA. Additionally, v2.4 …
Modb Interviews Industry Leaders - Feng Ruohang
Original WeChat Article | 【Modb Interviews Industry Leaders: Feng Ruohang】 Introduction: Recently, a historic debate in the database industry has sparked heated discussion. The post-90s entrepreneur Feng Ruohang, known as the “ace debater” in the …
Original WeChat Article | 【Modb Interviews Industry Leaders: Feng Ruohang】 Introduction: Recently, a historic debate in the database industry has sparked heated discussion. The post-90s entrepreneur Feng Ruohang, known as the “ace debater” in the …
What Kind of Self-Reliance Do Infra Software Need?
WeChat | Zhihu Original When we talk about self-reliance and control, what are we really talking about? For infrastructure software (operating systems/databases), does self-reliance and control mean: developed, distributed, and controlled by Chinese …
WeChat | Zhihu Original When we talk about self-reliance and control, what are we really talking about? For infrastructure software (operating systems/databases), does self-reliance and control mean: developed, distributed, and controlled by Chinese …
Pigsty v2.3: Richer App Ecosystem
GitHub Release | Release Note Pigsty v2.3 is here! This release further refines the monitoring system, enriches the application ecosystem, and keeps pace with PostgreSQL’s routine minor version updates (CVE fixes). Pigsty v2.3 follows PostgreSQL’s …
GitHub Release | Release Note Pigsty v2.3 is here! This release further refines the monitoring system, enriches the application ecosystem, and keeps pace with PostgreSQL’s routine minor version updates (CVE fixes). Pigsty v2.3 follows PostgreSQL’s …
Pigsty v2.2: Monitoring System Reborn
GitHub Release | Release Note Pigsty v2.2 is here! The world’s most powerful PostgreSQL monitoring system receives an epic upgrade — completely rebuilt on Grafana v10, pushing PG observability to a whole new level with a dramatically improved user …
GitHub Release | Release Note Pigsty v2.2 is here! The world’s most powerful PostgreSQL monitoring system receives an epic upgrade — completely rebuilt on Grafana v10, pushing PG observability to a whole new level with a dramatically improved user …
Cloud Computing Mudslide: Deconstructing Public Cloud with Data
Once upon a time, “going to cloud” was almost politically correct in tech circles, but few people use hard data to analyze the trade-offs involved. I’m willing to be this skeptic: let me use hard data and personal stories to explain the traps and …
Once upon a time, “going to cloud” was almost politically correct in tech circles, but few people use hard data to analyze the trade-offs involved. I’m willing to be this skeptic: let me use hard data and personal stories to explain the traps and …
DHH: Cloud-Exit Saves Over Ten Million, More Than Expected!
Author: DHH, “Our Cloud-Exit savings will now top ten million over five years” Feng’s Commentary As a cloud exit advocate, I’m gratified to see DHH’s tremendous success in the cloud exit process. The world always rewards leaders with the wisdom to …
Author: DHH, “Our Cloud-Exit savings will now top ten million over five years” Feng’s Commentary As a cloud exit advocate, I’m gratified to see DHH’s tremendous success in the cloud exit process. The world always rewards leaders with the wisdom to …