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Amateur Hour Opera: Alibaba Cloud PostgreSQL Disaster Chronicle

Amateur Hour Opera: Alibaba Cloud PostgreSQL Disaster Chronicle

·3617 words·8 mins
A customer experienced an outrageous cascade of failures on cloud database last week: a high-availability PG RDS cluster went down completely - both primary and replica servers - after attempting a simple memory expansion, troubleshooting until dawn. Poor recommendations abounded during the incident, and the postmortem was equally perfunctory. I share this case study here for reference and review.
Will DBAs Be Eliminated by Cloud?

Will DBAs Be Eliminated by Cloud?

·3607 words·17 mins
Two days ago, the ninth episode of Open Source Talks had the theme “Will DBAs Be Eliminated by Cloud?” As the host, I restrained myself from jumping into the debate throughout, so I’m writing this article to discuss this question: Will DBAs be eliminated by cloud?
Refuting "Why You Still Shouldn't Hire a DBA"

Refuting "Why You Still Shouldn't Hire a DBA"

·2345 words·12 mins
Guo Degang has a comedy routine: “Say I tell a rocket scientist, your rocket is no good, the fuel is wrong. I think it should burn wood, better yet coal, and it has to be premium coal, not washed coal. If that scientist takes me seriously, he loses.”
Are Cloud Databases an IQ Tax?

Are Cloud Databases an IQ Tax?

·5430 words·11 mins
Winter is coming, tech giants are laying off workers entering cost-reduction mode. Can cloud databases, the number one public cloud cash cow, still tell their story? The money you spend on cloud databases for one year is enough to buy several or even dozens of higher-performing servers. Are you paying an IQ tax by using cloud databases?
Is DBA Still a Good Job?

Is DBA Still a Good Job?

·1544 words·8 mins
Ant Financial had a self-deprecating joke: besides regulation, only DBAs could bring down Alipay. Although DBA sounds like a profession with glorious history and dim prospects, who knows if it might become trendy again after a few terrifying major cloud database incidents?