#Database
4 articles on Database. Practical notes, patterns, and lessons from building software.
Zero-Downtime Database Migrations: The Expand/Contract Playbook
How to change a production schema without taking traffic down — expand/contract, backfills, dual-writes, online DDL, and the migrations that always bite you.
PostgreSQL Internals: MVCC, VACUUM, and HOT Updates
How Postgres actually stores rows — tuples, xmin/xmax, HOT updates, table bloat, and why VACUUM is the most misunderstood command in your database.
Database Diagrams: A Practical Guide to Schema Design and Documentation
A comprehensive guide to database diagrams — covering ERD notations (Chen, Crow's Foot, UML), drawing with Mermaid and PlantUML, real-world schema examples, and best practices for documenting database designs.
PostgreSQL Performance Tuning: Lessons from Production
After optimizing PostgreSQL for three high-traffic production systems, I've compiled the tuning strategies that actually moved the needle — from indexing patterns to connection pooling and query optimization.