Optimize PostgreSQL® slow queries

PostgreSQL® gives you the ability to indentify slow queries using the pg_stat_statements view. The following article contains several common optimization techniques to improve slow running queries.

Common slow queries optimizations

It is worth knowing that many database indexes on a table can also cause problems for write performance due to the overhead of maintaining them.

Handle an increase in database connections

When your application code scales horizontally to accommodate high loads, you might find that you inadvertently reach the connection limits for your plan. Each connection in PostgreSQL runs in a separate process, and this makes them more expensive (compared to threads, for example) in terms of inter-process communication and memory usage, since each connection consumes a certain amount of RAM.

In such cases, you can use the connection pooling, based on PgBouncer, to handle an increase in database connections. You can add and configure the connection pooling for your service in the Pools view in Aiven Console.

Move read-only queries to standby nodes

If your Aiven for PostgreSQL® service is running a Business or Premium plan, you have one or more standby nodes available in a high availability setup in the same cloud region.

To reduce the effect of slow queries on the primary node, you can redirect read-only queries to the additional read-only nodes by directly connecting via the read-only replica URL .

Move read-only queries to a remote read-only replica

You can also create a remote read-only replica services in the same or different cloud/region providing a dedicated read-only service that you can use to reduce the query load on the primary service for read-only queries.