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PostgreSQL Glossary

Durability

The ACID property ensuring that once a transaction is committed, it remains so even in the event of system failure. Example: PostgreSQL's WAL (Write-Ahead…

Definition

The ACID property ensuring that once a transaction is committed, it remains so even in the event of system failure.

What Durability Means in PostgreSQL

The ACID property ensuring that once a transaction is committed, it remains so even in the event of system failure.

Durability appears frequently in production operations, architecture decisions, and troubleshooting workflows. Understanding this term helps teams reason about reliability, performance, and safe change management.

Why Durability Matters

Teams that understand Durability can make better decisions on database design, incident response, and release safety.

In modern PostgreSQL environments, this concept often connects directly to backup strategy, performance tuning, and operational confidence.

  • Improves decision quality for production operations
  • Reduces avoidable troubleshooting time
  • Strengthens reliability and recovery planning

Practical Example

PostgreSQL's WAL (Write-Ahead Logging) ensures durability by persisting all changes before acknowledging commits.

Where To Learn More

You can explore deeper implementation patterns in the Vela articles library, review platform workflows in How Vela Works, and compare approaches in our PostgreSQL comparisons.

Related Glossary Topics

Database Branching ACID Atomicity Archiving (WAL Archiving) archive_command archive_mode BYOC (Bring Your Own Cloud) B-tree Index

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Durability in PostgreSQL?
The ACID property ensuring that once a transaction is committed, it remains so even in the event of system failure.
Why is Durability important?
Durability matters because it directly affects how teams build, operate, and recover PostgreSQL systems in production.
Can you give a practical Durability example?
PostgreSQL's WAL (Write-Ahead Logging) ensures durability by persisting all changes before acknowledging commits.
How does Durability relate to backup, recovery, or performance?
In most production deployments, Durability influences one or more of these areas: data safety, restore behavior, and performance under load.
What should teams check first when implementing Durability?
Start with clear operational goals, test in a non-production environment, and validate behavior with repeatable runbooks before relying on it in production.