Why your PostgreSQL tuning guide might be wrong (and what to do about it) / Mohsin Ejaz

Have you ever applied PostgreSQL tuning advice only to see no improvement—or made things worse? While generic PostgreSQL wisdom is valuable, the complexity of PostgreSQL makes catch-all solutions underperform in unexpected ways. I will share examples where one PostgreSQL configuration improved performance in one system but hurt it in another—even for the same workload. The key insight: optimal PostgreSQL parameters depend heavily on your specific infrastructure characteristics. I'll present a checklist of important infrastructure differences—local vs network storage, IOPS limits, JIT availability, cloud vs on-premise—and demonstrate how these different environments require different optimal configurations for the same workload. You'll leave understanding why generic tuning guides often fail and what infrastructure characteristics you need to consider when tuning YOUR specific PostgreSQL system.