Database scalability tips

1. Avoid Object Relational Mappers. They create complex queries that hard to optimize.
2. Analyze locks. Row level locking is better than table level locking. Use async replication
3. Single database choke point? Create parallel databases and let a driver select between them.
4. Use metrics. Visualize what's happening to your system using one of the many monitoring packages.
5. Lack of Feature Flags. Turn off features via a flag so when a spike hits less important features can be turned off to reduce load.

© Copyright 2011, Tomas Elfving