You added a column to a PostgreSQL view. Now you want it gone. You ran CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW with fewer columns and PostgreSQL stopped you cold: Your table is fine. Your data is safe. But CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW has one hard rule — it can add columns at the end, but it cannot Read more about Cannot Drop Columns from View in PostgreSQL — Fix [42P16][…]
Last Updated: May 2026 Tested On: PostgreSQL 16.1, pgvector 0.8.1 / 0.8.2 The most common pgvector dimension mismatch error lands within the first hour of setup. After that come casting failures, ALTER TABLE dead-ends, and indexes that exist but never get used. Some are obvious — wrong dimension count, missing cast. Some are subtle — Read more about pgvector Gotchas: Dimension Mismatch, Casting Errors, and ALTER TABLE Solved [2026][…]
Last Updated: May 2026 Tested On: PostgreSQL 16.1 + 17.x, pgvector 0.8.1 / 0.8.2 Platforms: RHEL 9 / Rocky Linux, Ubuntu 22.04 / 24.04 Installing pgvector is not complicated. Two commands on most Linux distributions and you’re done. But I’ve seen enough production incidents — wrong package, wrong schema, extension loaded in the right database Read more about Install and Configure pgvector on PostgreSQL 16 and 17: Step-by-Step Guide [2026][…]
Last Updated: May 2026 Context: pgvector 0.8.1, Pinecone serverless, Weaviate 1.25+ The pgvector vs Pinecone vs Weaviate debate lands on my desk every time a new AI project starts, the first debate that erupts is not about the embedding model or the LLM. It’s this: “Should we just use pgvector or do we need a Read more about pgvector vs Pinecone vs Weaviate: A Production DBA’s Verdict [2026][…]
Last Updated: May 2026 | Tested On: PostgreSQL 16.1, pgvector 0.8.1 | Author: Sanjeeva Kumar, Oracle ACE Associate If you landed here searching “pgvector updates 2026” — you’re not looking for a setup tutorial. You already have pgvector running, or you’re evaluating it, and you want to know: what changed, what broke, and is it Read more about pgvector Release Notes & Updates [2025–2026]: What Changed and What It Means for Your PostgreSQL Stack[…]
Introduction When PostgreSQL logs show “configuration file contains errors” after a pg_reload_conf(), most DBAs immediately fear the worst. We were in the middle of a PostgreSQL performance tuning exercise — sequential scan audit, memory configuration review, the usual production DBA drill. After carefully calculating safe values for random_page_cost, effective_cache_size, work_mem, and wal_buffers, we fired off Read more about PostgreSQL “configuration file contains errors” — Don’t Panic, Here’s What’s Really Happening[…]
We have run vector search workloads on both Oracle AI Database 26ai and PostgreSQL with pgvector and we are here to show you the architectural breakdown of Oracle AI Database 26ai vector search vs pgvector. The technical capabilities of both are real — pgvector works, and PostgreSQL shops have built production vector search on it. Read more about Oracle AI Database 26ai Vector Search vs PostgreSQL pgvector — A DBA’s Perspective[…]
Recently, we encountered a perplexing situation with one of our production PostgreSQL systems. The buffer cache hit ratio, which had been consistently above 95%, started gradually declining – hovering around 90% and continuing to drop. The strange part? No slow query alerts, no CPU saturation, no memory pressure warnings. Everything looked normal on the surface. Read more about Why PostgreSQL Cache Hit Ratio Keeps Dropping: The Missing Index Problem[…]
By Sanjeeva Kumar | Senior Oracle DBA & Database ArchitectPublished: February 2026 | Reading time: 8 minutes The Scaling Advice That’s Costing You Millions OpenAI is running 800 million ChatGPT users on unsharded PostgreSQL. One primary writer per cluster. 50+ read replicas. No Cassandra. No sharding. Just PostgreSQL — properly governed. Sound familiar? It shouldn’t. Read more about PostgreSQL Scaling: What OpenAI Proved Wrong at 800M Users[…]
Last Updated: December 2025 | By Sanjeeva Kumar | 20+ Years in Database Systems The Plot Twist Nobody Saw Coming Two weeks ago, PostgreSQL’s pgvector extension released version 0.8.0. Within days, the entire vector database market collectively held its breath. Why? Because that “old guard” relational database just made billion-dollar vector database startups look like Read more about Do You Actually Need a Vector Database? Probably Not[…]
A PostgreSQL read-only user that returns permission denied almost always has one of three missing grants: CONNECT on the database, USAGE on the schema, or SELECT on the tables. All three are required — missing any one of them blocks access completely. This guide fixes it with copy-paste commands verified on PostgreSQL 16. The Challenge: Read more about PostgreSQL Read-Only User: Complete Permission Setup Guide[…]
Last Updated: December 10, 2025Tested On: RHEL 9.3, PostgreSQL 16.1 PostgreSQL 16 is the stable release of the powerful open-source relational database system, offering enhanced performance, security, and new features. This comprehensive guide walks you through installing PostgreSQL 16 on RHEL 9 with step-by-step instructions, commands, and best practices. Why Upgrade to PostgreSQL 16 on Read more about Install PostgreSQL 16 on RHEL 9 [Tested dnf Steps][…]
Understanding PostgreSQL Configuration Parameters PostgreSQL’s default configuration rarely fits production workloads. Whether you’re managing a small application database or an enterprise data warehouse, knowing which PostgreSQL configuration parameters to adjust can mean the difference between sub-second queries and application timeouts. In this guide, we’ll cover the essential PostgreSQL configuration parameters that directly impact performance, with Read more about PostgreSQL Configuration Parameters: Essential Settings Guide[…]
Why Enable Timing in PSQL? When optimizing your SQL queries, it’s crucial to measure their execution time to understand their performance. Enabling timing in psql lets you see how long a query takes to execute. Why Turn Off the Pager? By default, psql uses a pager (like less) to display query results when the output Read more about Enable psql Timing and Disable Pager Permanently[…]
This is in continuation of My last blog about Meta Commands in PostgreSQL. In last blog I have explained what a Meta command and how to list databases. In next few blogs we will explore few of Meta commands. Lets start exploring schemas. Visit this series of last blog for other command. The command we Read more about PostgreSQL Meta-Command using psql: Command Information -IV[…]
This guide covers how to install PostgreSQL 16 on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS using the official PGDG repository — the same method used in production environments. Commands are verified on Ubuntu 22.04 (Jammy). The original 2021 post covered Ubuntu 18.04 + PostgreSQL 11, both now EOL. Environment note: Commands below are verified on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Read more about Install PostgreSQL 16 on Ubuntu 22.04: Step-by-Step[…]