PostgreSQL

Buffer cache hit ratio below 95% causes excessive disk I/O

warning
performanceUpdated Mar 4, 2026
Technologies:
How to detect:

Buffer cache hit ratio falls below 95%, indicating PostgreSQL frequently reads from disk instead of memory. Below 95% is suboptimal, above 99% is ideal.

Recommended action:

Monitor buffer cache hit ratio using pg_stat_database metrics. If consistently below 95%, increase shared_buffers configuration or investigate query patterns causing cache misses. Check if working set exceeds available memory.