https://offnetchat.com/news/ Daily signal on databases, AI, and the tech that matters. en-us Tue, 04 Aug 2026 07:00:00 -0500 https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2026/7/aws-transform-windows-sql-schema-aurora ea834449144a5cd7 Tue, 04 Aug 2026 07:00:00 -0500 AWS Transform for full-stack Windows modernization now allows offline source transformation, enabling migration from Microsoft SQL Server to Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL without a live database connection. The service converts storage objects using AWS DMS and handles code objects like stored procedures through an interactive, agentic experience. Enterprises can upload SQL Server DDL files to assess complexity and generate customizable migration plans directly. (via AWS What's New) https://thebuild.com/blog/all-your-gucs-in-a-row-idle_replication_slot_timeout 94799a31343f7c78 Tue, 04 Aug 2026 07:00:00 -0500 PostgreSQL 18 introduces a new GUC, idle_replication_slot_timeout, to automatically drop replication slots that have been idle for a specified duration. This prevents WAL accumulation from orphaned slots from filling up disk space indefinitely. The feature provides a safety net for environments where slots are not actively managed or monitored. (via Planet PostgreSQL) https://clickhouse.com/blog/andy-pavlo-joins-clickhouse f1fe3fd0e98c360a Tue, 04 Aug 2026 07:00:00 -0500 Noted database systems researcher Andy Pavlo has joined ClickHouse to establish and lead a new entity called ClickHouse Labs. This hire signals a strategic move to formalize academic-style research within the company's open-source columnar database efforts. The appointment brings significant credibility and technical depth to ClickHouse's ongoing development roadmap. (via Hacker News (100+ points)) https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2026/07/aws-context--ontology-accelarator-generally-available 1c4548568943c79e Tue, 04 Aug 2026 07:00:00 -0500 AWS has generally released the Context Ontology Accelerator, an open-source tool designed to build machine-readable business ontologies for AI agents. The system ingests structured and unstructured data to draft an ontology, which domain experts then review and approve before it is stored in a W3C-standard knowledge graph. Agents access this trusted context via a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server to ensure decisions are consistent and auditable. (via AWS What's New) https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/database/using-cloudwatch-database-insights-to-troubleshoot-query-performance-from-calling-services 1555d204a069a9e8 Tue, 04 Aug 2026 07:00:00 -0500 Amazon CloudWatch Database Insights has introduced a calling services feature that identifies which applications are querying your databases and displays their specific performance metrics. This capability allows engineers to pinpoint the exact source of performance issues, significantly reducing the time spent determining root causes. By linking database load to specific application services, teams can contact the responsible owners immediately rather than spending hours investigating. (via AWS Database Blog) https://www.postgresql.org/about/news/pgbackrest-2590-released-3355 5258b1ff46638497 Tue, 04 Aug 2026 07:00:00 -0500 The pgBackRest community has released version 2.59.0, delivering updates to the popular PostgreSQL backup and restore tool. This release introduces malware and ransomware protection capabilities alongside the ability to resume partial or failed backups. The software continues to support parallel operations, multiple compression types, and encryption for scalable database infrastructure. (via PostgreSQL News) https://www.snowflake.com/en/blog/engineering/postgres-count-distinct-approximation 6fa48025dad88d8e Tue, 04 Aug 2026 07:00:00 -0500 Replacing exact COUNT(DISTINCT) with HyperLogLog (HLL) sketches can halve query latency, as demonstrated by a drop from 671ms to 320ms on a single scan. HLL works by hashing values and aggregating them into fixed-size sketches, allowing for rapid cardinality estimation. The critical advantage is mergeability; daily sketches can be stored and unioned at query time to compute distinct counts across arbitrary date ranges without re-scanning raw data. (via Planet PostgreSQL) https://www.postgresql.org/about/news/announcing-e-maj-500-3353 85f958de5359bcab Tue, 04 Aug 2026 07:00:00 -0500 The E-Maj 5.0.0 release introduces the ability for non-superuser roles to install and operate the extension, with feature access governed by specific privileges. This update ensures compatibility with PostgreSQL versions 14 through 19 and enhances the Emaj_web client. Key improvements also include better support for idempotent administration scripts and streamlined parameter management. (via PostgreSQL News) https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2026/07/amazon-aurora-dsql-adds-multi-region-clusters-four-more-regions d18fcd62da609094 Tue, 04 Aug 2026 07:00:00 -0500 Amazon Aurora DSQL now supports multi-Region clusters in Europe (Stockholm), Europe (Spain), Asia Pacific (Mumbai), and Asia Pacific (Singapore). This serverless distributed SQL database offers active-active high availability and multi-Region strong consistency. Each multi-Region cluster provides a writable endpoint in both peered Regions, presenting a single logical database that remains available even if one Region becomes unavailable. (via AWS What's New) https://www.percona.com/blog/stored-procedures-memory-consumption-in-percona-server-for-mysql 8511541e362d2e6c Tue, 04 Aug 2026 07:00:00 -0500 Percona published an investigation into the memory usage of stored procedures within Percona Server for MySQL. The analysis originated from performance comparisons of different memory allocators during benchmarking. The authors highlight unexpected memory effects discovered during this process that warrant detailed examination. (via Percona Blog) https://www.pgedge.com/blog/postgresql-18-s-extension_control_path-decoupling-extensions-from-server-images 5a1202d638ce83e1 Tue, 04 Aug 2026 07:00:00 -0500 PostgreSQL 18 introduces a new GUC enabling extension control and SQL files to reside outside standard server directories. This change facilitates packaging extensions as independent OCI images, allowing them to be mounted at runtime via Kubernetes ImageVolume or Docker volumes. The approach supports independent versioning and upgrading of extensions without rebuilding the core PostgreSQL server image. (via Planet PostgreSQL) https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2026/07/amazon-rds-oracle-r8i-m8i 50f0db71562fd5ac Tue, 04 Aug 2026 07:00:00 -0500 Amazon RDS for Oracle now supports 1-year and 3-year Reserved Instances for the R8i and M8i instance families, offering up to 53% savings over On-Demand pricing. These instances leverage custom Intel Xeon 6 processors exclusive to AWS, providing up to 2.5x more memory bandwidth and 15% better price-performance than previous generations. Reserved Instance benefits apply to both Single-AZ and Multi-AZ configurations, allowing flexibility to switch between them within the same instance class. (via AWS What's New) https://www.theregister.com/ai-and-ml/2026/08/03/as-larry-ellison-bets-the-farm-oracle-says-it-loves-ai-written-code-just-not-in-openjdk/5281851 0703f79959a84892 Tue, 04 Aug 2026 07:00:00 -0500 Oracle is encouraging developers to use AI-generated code for debugging and code review tasks, but explicitly prohibits submitting AI-written output as commits. This stance comes as Larry Ellison heavily invests in AI, yet the company maintains strict boundaries on open-source contributions to the OpenJDK project. The policy aims to leverage AI for internal efficiency while protecting the integrity of upstream Java development. (via The Register)