What is a PostgreSQL Health Check? 🩺
A health check is a process of evaluating the performance, reliability, and stability of your database.
The goal is to detect potential issues early and keep your system running faster, safer, and more efficiently.
It’s not something you do only when a problem occurs — it’s a proactive routine.
1. Set the right frequency for health checks ⏱️
Adjust the health check frequency based on your TPS (transactions per second) or database growth rate:
- 0 – 10,000 transactions/day → Once a week
- 10,000 – 100,000 transactions/day → Every 2–3 days
- 100,000+ transactions/day → Daily
If your system is unstable (CPU spikes, high memory usage, slow queries, too many concurrent connections, frequent error/fatal logs), increase the frequency.
2. Evaluate OS and database metrics together 🖥️ + 🗄️
Analyze OS metrics (CPU, RAM, disk, network) together with PostgreSQL internal metrics.
Think of CPU usage like a person’s heartbeat — sudden spikes always have a reason:
- Slow queries 🐌
- Disk or network bottlenecks 📉
- Misconfigured parameters ⚙️
Without root cause analysis, problems are rarely solved for good.
3. Test changes before production 🧪
Never apply changes directly to production.
Test them under similar load in a staging environment first.
This helps prevent downtime and unexpected issues.
4. Automate your health checks 🤖
If you run the same scripts daily or weekly, automate them.
Spend your time interpreting results, not manually running scripts.
5. Compare with previous results 📊
Keep a record of every health check (with dates and details).
When you compare with past results, you can:
- See improvements clearly
- Detect regressions quickly
- Report progress accurately to your team and management
This makes performance trends visible.
6. There’s always room for improvement 🚀
Never think “My database is perfect now.”
There are always optimizations to be made.
Use tools like pghealth.io to support regular checks and spot new opportunities.
7. Work as a team 👥
Database optimization isn’t just the DBA’s job:
- Developers → Optimize queries
- Analysts → Identify and remove unnecessary queries
- DevOps → Improve infrastructure
Many big improvements happen through cross-team collaboration.
8. Start today ⏳
A common mistake is to start health checks only after a problem appears.
By then, fixing it is more expensive and takes longer.
Preventive maintenance is always cheaper than emergency fixes.
9. Don’t focus only on the database 🌐
Even though we’re talking about PostgreSQL health checks, look at the entire system:
- Application architecture
- Network setup
- Infrastructure optimization
- Caching solutions
- Separate disks for data and WAL files
Always take a big-picture approach.
10. Get normalization right 🏗️
A poorly designed schema can ruin all your optimization efforts.
At least ensure third normal form when designing your schema.
Badly normalized tables will cause constant performance problems.
💡 Final note:
A PostgreSQL health check is not a one-time task — it’s a continuous process.
Detect issues early, find the root cause, and work with your team to fix them.
A healthy database = Happy users + Lower costs. 🚀
Author: Fırat Güleç — Principal PostgreSQL DBA, specialized in performance tuning and health checks.