How to Get a Complete PostgreSQL Database Health Report During a Sev-1

Generate a complete PostgreSQL health report and fix Sev-1 incidents quickly.

The Moment Every DBA Knows Too Well

There’s a specific kind of silence during a Sev-1.

Monitoring graphs freeze. Dashboards lag.
Everyone waits for you to say something anything about what’s happening inside PostgreSQL.

It doesn’t matter how senior you are; that first minute is always the hardest.

In those moments, one truth becomes obvious:

You can’t fix what you can’t see.
And PostgreSQL does not forgive blind troubleshooting.

Why I Built a Single, Comprehensive PostgreSQL Health Report

After handling more than 950+ production incidents (70% involving PostgreSQL, most Sev-1), I noticed the same problem every time:

All the information you need to diagnose a Sev-1 exists, but it’s scattered:

• A query for locks here

• A stats check somewhere else

• Autovacuum info in another place

• Bloat scripts from a random gist

• Replication checks from an old Slack message

During a Sev-1, this fragmentation costs real money and real time.

So I built something I wished existed earlier:

One SQL file that gives a full PostgreSQL health report in 30 seconds.

Not a toolkit.
Not random queries.
A structured, end-to-end report covering everything a DBA needs to understand what is happening right now.

The Framework Behind It (And Why It Works in Any Sev-1)

I designed the report around a simple principle learned from years of firefighting:

Incidents don’t happen in isolation they cascade.

A lock becomes a queue.
A queue becomes saturation.
Saturation becomes timeouts.
Timeouts become a customer notification.

If you don’t see the chain, you will chase symptoms instead of root causes.

So the SQL report follows the exact order of how problems unfold in PostgreSQL during a Sev-1.

Below is the polished breakdown of everything it covers, rewritten cleanly and clearly.

🚀 Get the PostgreSQL Health Report SQL file now →

Price 29$ with 60+ SQL Queries + Actionable Fix Commands

What the PostgreSQL Health Report Includes

1. Database Environment

Version, uptime, size, extensions, and connection load.
This sets the context quickly for any PostgreSQL performance analysis.

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2. Critical Alerts

Immediate red flags such as:

• Tables with 30%+ bloat

• Tables never vacuumed/analyzed

• Stale statistics impacting the planner

These are among the most common causes of sudden performance drops and unexpected PostgreSQL slowdowns.

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3. Connection Pool Health

You see:

• Usage percentage

• Idle vs active connections

• Aborted connections

• Long-running transactions

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4. Lock Contention

Shows:

• Blocking queries

• Victims

• Lock types

• Durations

When an incident is caused by lock chains, this predicts it earlier than dashboards.

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5. Query Performance (via pg_stat_statements)

Identifies:

• Slow queries

• Queries consuming most CPU/IO

• High load statements

• Missing extensions or stats

Essential for PostgreSQL query tuning during a live incident.

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6. Wait Events Analysis

Helps differentiate:

• IO stalls

• CPU saturation

• Lock waits

• LWLock pressure

• Buffer pin waits

Most DBAs don’t check wait events early but this is where the real answers usually are.

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7. Buffer Cache & IO Efficiency

Includes:

• Cache hit ratios

• IO timing

• Background writer insights

Critical for diagnosing disk bottlenecks.

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8. Table Bloat & Dead Tuples

Shows:

• Dead tuple counts

• Bloat percentage

• High-churn tables

• Vacuum urgency

This alone avoids multiple Sev-1 incidents every year.

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9. Vacuum & Autovacuum Health

Checks:

• Last vacuum

• Last analyze

• Autovacuum activity

• Threshold readiness

Autovacuum misconfiguration is responsible for more PostgreSQL instability than people realize.

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10. Index Usage Analysis

Highlights:

• Unused indexes

• Low-usage indexes

• Missing indexes

• Index size impact

Useful both for tuning and long-term cost optimisation.

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11. Disk Usage

Shows:

• Largest tables

• Size breakdown

• Space growth patterns

Essential during high-storage or IO-related incidents.

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12. Replication Health

Checks:

• Lag

• Replication slots

• Standby freshness

• WAL pressure

All necessary for PostgreSQL streaming replication debugging.

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13. Transaction Performance (TPS)

TPS, rollbacks, deadlocks indicators of application-level issues.

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14. Checkpoints & WAL Behavior

Where many performance drops originate.
This section offers clarity on checkpoint frequency and WAL pressure.

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15. Summary + Fix Commands

A clean summary of the database’s state and priority-sorted SQL fixes you can execute safely.

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Why DBAs, SREs & Engineers Use This

This isn’t a product made to look impressive.
It was built inside real outages, under real pressure.

It helps you:

• Understand the full system in 30 seconds

• Respond to executives with clarity

• Avoid chasing symptoms

• Predict failures before they escalate

• Build confidence during incidents

• Troubleshoot with a consistent method

When you have a repeatable diagnostic engine, incidents stop feeling chaotic.
You stop reacting and start understanding.

Master High-Severity Incidents: My Checklist Mindset Playbook

After handling over 950 Sev-1 incidents for Fortune 100 customers at Microsoft, I realized something: when everything’s on fire, it’s easy to freeze or panic.

That’s why I developed a Checklist Mindset Playbook something I rely on every single time, and I want to share it with you.

Here’s what you’ll get:

• A mental model I use to handle incidents without losing my head

• How I stay calm and think clearly under pressure

• My method to avoid panic debugging and make quick, confident decisions

• Get 25+ practical SQL queries.

If you manage production systems, this mindset can change the way you respond to Sev-1 incidents trust me, it makes the chaos manageable.

After hundreds of high-stakes incidents, this checklist mindset is my secret weapon. And now, you can have it too.

I documented it here → [Playbook link]