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Herding Elephants: How Heroku Uses Ruby to Run the Largest Fleet of Postgres Databases in the World Heroku operates the largest fleet of Postgres databases in the world. Service oriented architecture, infrastructure as code, and fault tolerance make it possible. Come hear how the Heroku Postgres team uses a handful of Ruby applications to operate and scale the largest herd of your favorite elephant themed RDBMS. Help us caption & translate this video! http://amara.org/v/FG4A/
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**Herding Elephants** presents insights on how Heroku operates the largest fleet of PostgreSQL databases through a blend of Ruby applications, emphasizing service-oriented architecture, infrastructure as code, and robust fault tolerance. Speaker **Clint Shryock**, a support engineer at Heroku, uses humor and personal anecdotes to connect with the audience while delving into the technical aspects of their database management approach. ### Key Points: - **Introduction to Heroku and Its Postgres Team**: - Clint clarifies his role at Heroku and distinguishes his team's responsibilities, noting that they are a small unit managing a vast infrastructure with thousands of PostgreSQL databases. - Emphasizes the concept of a **database as a service** and the add-on relationship of Heroku Postgres, highlighting its early adoption in the marketplace. - **Evolution of Heroku Postgres**: - Begins with a simple Sinatra application that has grown into a constellation of applications for effective management. - Describes a distributed architecture with specific applications handling different tasks, enhancing operational responsibilities. - **Monitoring and Managing Databases**: - Importance of continuously monitoring several databases to spot issues early. - States that they adopt an **outside-in approach**, where workers gather information to assess different database statuses, rather than relying solely on software installations for monitoring. - **State Machines and Stateless Workers**: - Clint outlines the use of **state machines** to manage complex behaviors and transitions among various states (e.g., up, down, uncertain) for server resources. - Discusses the efficiency of **stateless workers** that quickly execute tasks without maintaining deep state connections, allowing for rapid recovery from issues. - **Incident Management**: - Design of incident resolution protocols ensures issues are documented and addressed systematically. - Playbooks for common incidents promote knowledge sharing across team members, reducing reliance on individual expertise. - **Handling Failures and Escalations**: - If resolution efforts fail, there are escalation procedures in place that involve human intervention to resolve complex problems. - Stresses the importance of expecting failures as an inherent part of operating at scale and maintaining a positive attitude. ### Conclusion: Clint’s talk illustrates the significance of simplicity in design, effective monitoring, and error management in complex systems. He asserts that embracing the inevitability of failures while having a structured approach to handling them is crucial for success. This presentation serves as a valuable resource for engineering teams looking to improve database management processes while maintaining system reliability.
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