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PostgreSQL Glossary

Lock

A mechanism to control concurrent access to database resources to maintain data consistency. Example: PostgreSQL uses various lock types to ensure that UP…

Definition

A mechanism to control concurrent access to database resources to maintain data consistency.

What Lock Means in PostgreSQL

A mechanism to control concurrent access to database resources to maintain data consistency.

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

Why Lock Matters

Teams that understand Lock 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 uses various lock types to ensure that UPDATE operations don't conflict with each other.

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

Logical Replication LSN (Log Sequence Number) ACID Atomicity Archiving (WAL Archiving) archive_command archive_mode BYOC (Bring Your Own Cloud)

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Lock in PostgreSQL?
A mechanism to control concurrent access to database resources to maintain data consistency.
Why is Lock important?
Lock matters because it directly affects how teams build, operate, and recover PostgreSQL systems in production.
Can you give a practical Lock example?
PostgreSQL uses various lock types to ensure that UPDATE operations don't conflict with each other.
How does Lock relate to backup, recovery, or performance?
In most production deployments, Lock influences one or more of these areas: data safety, restore behavior, and performance under load.
What should teams check first when implementing Lock?
Start with clear operational goals, test in a non-production environment, and validate behavior with repeatable runbooks before relying on it in production.