Schedule - PGConf NYC 2024

Postgres schema migrations using the expand/contract pattern

Date: 2024-09-30
Time: 15:00–15:50
Room: The Hub
Level: Intermediate
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Learn how to do Postgres schema migrations without breaking dependent applications by leveraging the expand/contract pattern.

pgroll is a new open-source migration tool for Postgres that keeps multiple versions of a schema live during a migration, helping you roll out database schema changes without downtime.

Database schema migrations often pose significant challenges to developers, particularly when striving for zero downtime migrations.

There are many things that can go wrong:

This talk presents a new approach to schema migrations using an ‘expand/contract’ pattern where multiple versions of a database schema are maintained during the migration, allowing old and new versions of client applications to run side-by-side during an application rollout. Each version of the application sees the version of the database schema with which it is designed to work.

The talks covers the ideas behind this approach, and the challenges to be overcome such as:

Slides

The following slides have been made available for this session:

Speaker

Andrew Farries