Tagged “reliability”
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What to monitor on a vector database
The handful of signals that predict an incident, the ones that only confirm one, and why recall needs a synthetic probe rather than a metric.
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Backing up a vector database
Snapshots, what they miss, and why a vector-store backup is only real once you've restored it and run a recall check against a known query set.
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Reindexing without downtime
Embedding model changed, so the whole index has to be rebuilt. Four strategies, what each costs in memory and complexity, and how to roll back.
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Compaction, and when to force it
Segment count is a direct multiplier on query work. How to tell if background compaction is keeping up, when to trigger it by hand, and what it costs.
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When an index build fails partway
The build OOMs near the end, the pod restarts, and it begins the same build again. How to break the loop and what state the collection is actually in.
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Splitting a collection across shards
Sharding is the mitigation with the longest lead time, so it has to be started before you need it. How to choose a shard key and cut over safely.
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Upgrading a vector database engine
The upgrade that goes wrong changes result quality, not availability. What to check before, how to stage it, and why your old snapshots may stop working.
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Failing over to a vector store replica
A replica that has never served traffic is not a replica. What replication does and doesn't cover for a vector index, and how to rehearse the failover.
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Warming a vector index after a restart
The first minutes after every restart are the slowest your service ever gets. What is actually cold, and how to warm it before traffic arrives.
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Isolating tenants in one vector store
One large customer's traffic is degrading everyone else's latency, and one tenant's growth is your capacity plan. Isolation options and what each costs.
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Query timeouts and retry storms
A timeout that fires plus a client that retries turns a slow vector index into an unavailable one. How to set both so load is shed, not amplified.
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Auditing a collection against your system of record
The index and the source of truth drift apart quietly: orphaned vectors, missing chunks, stale copies. How to run a reconciliation and what to do with it.