102: Postgres Performance Tuning and Query Planner with Bruce Momjian

In this weeks episode we are very lucky to be joined by Bruce Momjian to discuss Postgres Performance Tuning and Query Planner. We start off discussion around how Bruce got interested in Database Systems, a brief history of Postgres and his involvement with the project over the years. Following this we highlight the three main areas which affect database performance - hardware, server configuration and SQL/indexing. With this knowledge in hand, we then delve into the Query Planner, demystifying some of the terminology and concepts used (i.e. cost, scan methods and join methods). Finally, we summarise how these concepts are used by Postgres to decide which query plan to pick for a supplied query.