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How does PostgreSQL internally manage WAL syncing for extreme durability requirements?

Expert PostgreSQL
Quick Answer WAL durability tuning: synchronous_commit=on ensures WAL flushed to disk before commit. wal_sync_method: fdatasync (default Linux), fsync, open_sync. Use hardware with battery-backed write cache for better performance without compromising durability. synchronous_standby_names with remote_apply ensures WAL applied on standby before commit. For extreme durability: synchronous replication + local journal sync = RPO of effectively 0.

Answer

PostgreSQL flushes WAL buffers using wal_writer and synchronous_commit settings. Extreme durability requires synchronous_commit=on, full_page_writes=on, fast NVMe storage, tuned WAL-segmentation, and aggressive archiving.
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