How Amazon RDS Replication Works and Why the FAA's Database Problem Won't Happen in AWS
January 30, 2023
Bohan Zhang
Andy Pavlo
The FAA's NOTAM database crashed because they weren't employing modern high-availability practices. So we discuss how replication works for PostgreSQL and MySQL databases running in Amazon RDS and why the FAA's problem won't happen to your databases if you use it correctly.
Databases in 2022: A Year in Review
December 31, 2022
Andy Pavlo
Andy Pavlo is back with his analysis of the database world in 2022, including VC funding, blockchains, and Larry Ellison.
OtterTune v1.5
December 14, 2022
Floyd Smith
Open-source databases are blowing up. (Trust us – this is a good thing.) And OtterTune is keeping up. Our new software release, OtterTune v1.5 (press release here), includes all the good things we...
Postgres is on the Rise
December 7, 2022
Andy Pavlo
Postgres is moving on up! But why? In this blog post, we pull together some of the most important reasons – and show you how OtterTune can help improve one of the few...
We got our SOC 2 Type II report (and you can too)
November 7, 2022
Dana Van Aken
Dao Chen
At OtterTune, building a trusted and secure platform has been a top priority from the beginning. But as a company that deals with customer data in the cloud, we recognize how important it...
Cloud Spending May Be Heading for a Fall…
October 12, 2022
Floyd Smith
In a recent article, VentureBeat shared some potentially grim news for cloud providers. According to a survey by Wanclouds, which specializes in cloud migrations, more than 80% of respondents plan to hold cloud...
OtterTune Intern Showcase 2022
September 19, 2022
Evelyn Chen
OtterTune is not just a fancy frontend to a few tools – but a revolutionary machine learning and machine training platform that makes the database backend run in the best possible scenario, now...
Haonan Wang
Bohan Zhang
Ah, the frustrating slow-running PostgreSQL query. What’s an otter to do? The first thing to do — without question — is run ANALYZE. PostgreSQL’s ANALYZE command collects statistics about specific table columns, entire...
OtterTune August '22 Product Update: A Better Tomorrow
August 11, 2022
DJ OT
At OtterTune, we continue to plow ahead with our plan to make databases better and easier to manage for everyone. We told you in our previous product update about our automated table-level health...
Is Augmented Data Management Really New?
July 27, 2022
Andy Pavlo
There is a lot of noise in the early-stage tech startup game, which makes it hard to get people to pay attention to what you are trying to do. This is why we...
Get Granular Without the Grunt Work: OtterTune Table Health Checks Lets You Diagnose Issues Automatically
July 20, 2022
Ruogu Du
Yuze Liao
Evelyn Chen
No one wants to get lit up for database downtime or sluggish performance. OtterTune is here for you and your trap. We introduced Database Health Checks back in March as a powerful way...
Beignets and Bonding on Bourbon Street
June 22, 2022
OtterTune
The otters at Airboat Adventures. The ravaging pandemic has forced the OtterTune team to stay away from each other for the last year. The last time we were together was in May 2021...
Introducing OtterTune Database Quick-Enable
June 16, 2022
Sylvia Zhang
Michael Hermenault
New setup features make it easier to manage & auto-tune larger fleets of AWS Aurora and RDS databases with OtterTune.
Andy Pavlo
The start-up game is rough. Andy Pavlo reflects on OtterTune's journey from an academic research project to a thriving start-up.
Run ANALYZE. Run ANALYZE. Run ANALYZE.
May 19, 2022
Bohan Zhang
Always run ANALYZE when trying to solve slow PostgreSQL queries
New Deployment Methods for the OtterTune Agent
April 20, 2022
OtterTune
New K8s and Helm deployment options for the open source OtterTune Agent, which collects metrics from your db for OtterTune to analyze.
Keeping Your Database “Otterly” Healthy
March 30, 2022
Bohan Zhang
Ruogu Du
New OtterTune Database Health Checks inform you of possible database performance issues in real-time and recommend fixes.
OtterTune March '22 Product Update: Protect Ya Neck
March 16, 2022
DJ OT
New: Automatic database health checks, CPU utilization as an optimization target, Free Amazon Aurora tuning, PostgreSQL 14 support, and more
Ten Database Commandments
March 9, 2022
Andy Pavlo
In memory of Biggie Smalls, we present our ten street rules for database management.
Databases, Machine Learning, and Parisian Riots
February 11, 2022
Andy Pavlo
Visiting Societe Generale to deploy OtterTune in 2018 - 45% improvement in Oracle performance and an encounter with riot police.
Video: OtterTune "Human-in-the-Loop" Mode
January 28, 2022
Neal Kaviratna
OtterTune engineer, Neal Kaviratna, demonstrates OtterTune "HITL mode" in this 10-minute video.
DJ OT
OtterTune analyzes and automatically tunes over 100 PostgreSQL configuration settings for Amazon RDS and Amazon Aurora users. Here's the list.
Which MySQL Configuration Settings Does OtterTune Optimize?
January 7, 2022
DJ OT
OtterTune analyzes and automatically tunes over 150 MySQL configuration settings for Amazon RDS and Amazon Aurora users. Here's the list.
Databases in 2021: A Year in Review
December 28, 2021
Andy Pavlo
Andy Pavlo's take on 2021 database industry happenings - PostgreSQL, Performance Wars, Passings, and Larry Ellison
Introducing Human-in-the-Loop Control Over Automatic Database Tuning
December 17, 2021
Neal Kaviratna
New “Human in the Loop” features give you more control over aspects of the OtterTune automatic database tuning process.
Query Latency vs. Throughput as a Database Tuning Objective
December 9, 2021
Ruogu Du
Bohan Zhang
Andy Pavlo
Why the new OtterTune default target objective is 99th percentile query latency
Bohan Zhang
Automatic database tuning, driven by machine learning, can shave weeks off of the Oracle-to-PostgreSQL migration process.
OtterTune Intern Showcase 2021
November 11, 2021
OtterTune
Sylvia Zhang and Haonan Wang joined us as interns, and returned to school as future Otters. Here's what they built this summer!
How OtterTune Securely Collects Database Metrics
November 4, 2021
Neal Kaviratna
How the OtterTune tuning service is designed to collect metrics from your database securely, via an open source Agent.
Automatic Database Tuning Tips: Handling Restarts
October 20, 2021
Dana Van Aken
Whether you use OtterTune, or you tune by hand, these four tips are helpful when it comes to the dreaded database restart.
OtterTune Oct 2021 Product Update: Bring Da Ruckus
October 14, 2021
OtterTune
Updates to OtterTune automatic database tuning service enable easier, faster setup, new auto-tuning controls, a Slack support forum, and ability to tune your first database for free.
You are Overpaying Jeff Bezos for Your Databases (and the things he does with that extra money)
September 30, 2021
Andy Pavlo
Three ways AWS customers unnecessarily pad Jeff Bezos’ bank account with expensive database costs, but it does not need to be this way.
Ruogu Du
Bohan Zhang
Amazon's default settings for MySQL RDS can make your database run slower than it should. We show how OtterTune improves MySQL's performance by 2x while also reducing the AWS costs by half just by tuning the database's configuration knobs.
How Will Machine Learning Transform Database Administration?
September 14, 2021
Dana Van Aken
Machine learning will not make human database administrators (DBA) obsolete, but here are three ways it will change the role and skillset of the DBA.
External vs. Internal Automatic Database Tuning Approaches
September 7, 2021
Andy Pavlo
A look at the pros and cons of external vs. internal machine-learning approaches to automatic database tuning.
Dana Van Aken
Video of a VLDB 2021 talk, in which OtterTune CTO, Dana Van Aken presents research that helps DBMS users benefit from autonomous tuning more productively.
OtterTune at VLDB 2021
August 11, 2021
Andy Pavlo
The OtterTune team will be participating in full force at VLDB 2021, with a research paper presentation, workshop keynote, award talk, and discussion panel.
OtterTune
Lessons learned from the first customer deployments of OtterTune’s machine learning-driven DBMS tuning system, and research papers published on the experiences.
Seven Years of OtterTune R&D: Part I - The Lab Years
July 19, 2021
OtterTune
Highlights and lessons learned developing OtterTune’s machine learning algorithms & services architecture - with links to 2 peer-reviewed research papers.
Dana Van Aken
OtterTune automates the process of optimizing a database’s configuration knobs for its specific workload by using machine learning (ML). Since ML algorithms do not interpret the world the same way humans do, OtterTune has safeguards in place to ensure that ML does not harm your database.
Bohan Zhang
When you provision an RDS PostgreSQL instance, Amazon launches it with their default configuration settings for dozens of tunable knobs. These knob settings affect database performance, and the default settings are often not optimal for your databases specific workload...
Watch: OtterTune Explained in 5 Minutes...
May 26, 2021
Andy Pavlo
We present a 5 minute video that explains how OtterTune uses machine learning to automate database tuning. It includes a demo of OtterTune optimizing a PostgreSQL database running on Amazon RDS.
OtterTune Frequently Asked Questions
May 12, 2021
Dana Van Aken
This post provides answers to the most common and pressing questions that we get about OtterTune. We will cover what databases OtterTune supports and how does the service work.
Let’s Do This!
May 12, 2021
Andy Pavlo
Dana Van Aken
Yo. Today is a banner day that follows years of research on autonomous database technology and machine learning at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and lessons learned from customer deployments. We’re happy to announce the first commercial release...