Databases Intermediate

What is Migration?

A version-controlled change to a database schema that can be applied and reversed systematically.

Database migrations track schema changes over time, similar to version control for code. Each migration defines an "up" (apply) and "down" (revert) operation, such as creating tables, adding columns, or modifying constraints.

Migrations ensure all environments (development, staging, production) have identical database schemas. They are run in sequence and tracked to prevent re-application. Tools include Flyway, Liquibase, Alembic, and framework-specific migration systems.

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Related Terms

Time-Series Database

A database optimized for storing and querying timestamped data points like metrics, sensor readings, and event logs.

Database Sharding

A horizontal scaling strategy that distributes data across multiple database servers based on a partition key.

The default index type in most databases that organizes data in a balanced tree structure for efficient searching, sorting, and range queries.

EXPLAIN ANALYZE

A PostgreSQL command that shows the execution plan of a query along with actual runtime statistics for performance tuning.

Database Connection Pooling

A technique that maintains a cache of database connections for reuse, reducing the overhead of creating new connections.

A database operation that inserts a new row if it does not exist, or updates the existing row if it does.

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