Wait! What's going on inside my database?

PostgreSQL 9.6 introduced wait events and PostgreSQL 10 progressed them, but what are they? What do they mean? How do I find them and how do I make them go away? Wait events are one of the most significant advancements in observability for PostgreSQL databases; their usefulness is unparalleled in troubleshooting performance. This talk will go into all that and more as we perform a flyover of the field of database performance engineering in general, and then dive deep to explore the world of PostgreSQL wait events specifically.

Attendees should have a basic familiarity with databases and SQL.  It will be beneficial to have familiarity with basic software engineering concepts like version control and a programming language, but this is not strictly required.  This talk will include references to SQL statements, C code and PL/pgSQL code that will not be explained, and it not explain what a database is or how a database typically fits into an application’s architecture. Beyond that, the talk is designed to be broadly accessible and advanced topics will be explained and illustrated as they are introduced.

Goals:
1. Learn about history and significant developments in the field of database performance engineering
2. Learn about PostgreSQL’s implementation of wait events and industry best practices for approaching performance problems
3. Walk though step-by-step examples of solving performance problems with wait events