PostgreSQL 10 High Performance - Third Edition

Performance tuning as a practice

Work on improving database performance has its own terminology, just like any other field. Here are some terms or phrases that will be used throughout the book; both of these terms will be used to refer to the current limitation that is preventing performance from getting better:

• Running a test to determine how fast a particular operation can run. This is often done to figure out where the bottleneck of a program or system is.
• Monitoring what parts of a program are using the most resources when running a difficult operation, such as a benchmark. This is typically to help prove where the bottleneck is, and whether it's been removed as expected after a change. Profiling a database application usually starts ...