The article discusses transaction visibility behavior in PostgreSQL clusters with read replicas, as highlighted in a Jepsen report on Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL Multi-AZ clusters.
The issue of transactions becoming visible in a different order in primary and replica clusters is a known long-standing problem in the PostgreSQL community.
This behavior, known as the Long Fork anomaly, is a violation of Snapshot Isolation and has been acknowledged since at least 2013.
The Long Fork anomaly affects the order in which transaction effects become visible in PostgreSQL, leading to potential discrepancies in application behavior.
The article provides an example scenario to illustrate how the Long Fork anomaly can impact the visibility of transaction effects in PostgreSQL clusters with read replicas.
Various solutions have been proposed to align the visibility order with the commit order by using Commit Sequence Numbers (CSNs) in PostgreSQL.
Although the Long Fork anomaly is esoteric from an end-user perspective, fixing it is crucial for enhancing enterprise-grade capabilities in PostgreSQL clusters.
The article emphasizes the importance of addressing the Long Fork anomaly, particularly in scenarios related to distributed systems, query routing, data synchronization, and point-in-time restore.
AWS is dedicated to PostgreSQL's success, actively contributing to the PostgreSQL community and working towards resolving the Snapshot Isolation anomaly in PostgreSQL.
Recommendations for users include reviewing application assumptions, using explicit synchronization mechanisms, and contacting AWS Support for deployment concerns.