After the successful premiere and kickoff in Cologne in February the second meetup of the PostgreSQL User Group NRW will take place in Aachen. Based on many requests and the tri-state-area situation we've decided to switch to English including the spoken language for the talks. But of course for the networking during the meetup everyone can use the language of comfort :-) With the support of Anita Ludermann and her employer Modell Aachen, we were able to secure the digitalCHURCH ( https://aachen.digital/digital-church/ ) as an exciting location, where many interesting tech events have been taking place for some time.
I am happy to announce the two amazing sessions from well known and quite international speakers.
- "Bringing Vectors to Postgres" by Gülçin Yıldırım Jelínek
Abstract:
Postgres does not yet have native vector capabilities (as of Postgres 16) and pgvector is designed to fill this gap. You can store your vector data alongside the rest of your data in Postgres and do vector similarity search while still utilizing all the great features Postgres provides.
The pgvector extension integrates seamlessly with Postgres – allowing users to leverage its capabilities within their existing database infrastructure. This simplifies the deployment and management of AI applications, as there's no need for separate data stores or complex data transfer processes.
In this talk, we will learn how to generate and store vector embeddings in Postgres. We will discuss indexing (IVFFlat, HNSW) the embedding data and illustrate how to run a similarity query on our embeddings.
Bio:
Gülçin started working with Postgres at a startup company in 2012 and was amazed at how good Postgres really is! After being involved in organizing PostgreSQL conferences, giving talks, and being an active community member, she was elected to the PostgreSQL Europe Board in 2017. Gulcin is interested in PostgreSQL Automation and Cloud Technologies. She worked as Cloud Services Manager and led the Cloud Development in 2ndQuadrant (acquired by EDB in 2020). Gulcin is part of Postgres Women and cares about the diversity and representation of women in technical communities. She currently works at EDB as Staff Engineer.
- "pgBackRest Frequently Asked Questions" by Stefan Fercot
Abstract:
pgBackRest, one of the most powerful backup and restore tool for PostgreSQL, has been widely embraced by the community for its robustness and efficiency. However, every tool has its limitations, and pgBackRest is no exception. In this session, we'll uncover some of the most frequently asked questions I've seen over the years supporting and contributing to the tool.
One area that is very often underestimated is its archiving system, which plays a vital role in enabling Point-in-Time Recovery (PITR). So, we'll start with an analysis of the current archiving possibilities and their limitations, and see how users can optimize archiving performance by leveraging parallelism and various compression algorithms.
When speaking of robustness and efficiency, we should also discuss the importance of monitoring and reporting the backups and archiving system state. We'll then analyze the existing monitoring and troubleshooting capabilities in pgBackRest, and suggest some enhanced metrics and alerts.
Finally, leveraging some advanced recovery techniques for partial data restoration, we'll look at the current restore options in pgBackRest and how to introduce additional granularity to reach specific recovery targets. By attending this talk, participants will gain valuable insights into some limitations of pgBackRest and learn about potential solutions to fill the gaps.
Bio:
As a Senior PostgreSQL Expert, Stefan from Belgium brings to Data Egret close to 15 years of expertise in the database space, boasting extensive experience in client support, maintenance, and architectural consulting. He is active within the community and is one of the contributors to pgBackRest, a reliable backup and restore solution for PostgreSQL
Of course there will be enough time for networking and exchange including snacks, warm and cold drinks. :-)
Due to room requirements, the number of participants is of course limited. Anyone interested in PostgreSQL is welcome, but I ask that you only register seriously and, if necessary, release the slot if you are unable to attend.
Best regards
Dirk
