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Live Migrations

Postgres Conductor deploys schema updates with zero downtime using automatic migration coordination.

Overview

When you deploy a new version with schema changes, orchestrators coordinate to apply migrations safely without requiring manual shutdown or intervention.

How It Works

When an orchestrator starts, it:

  1. Checks migration status - Compares database version with its own migration version
  2. Attempts migration lock - Uses Postgres advisory locks to coordinate with other orchestrators
  3. Signals old workers - For breaking changes, tells older orchestrators to shut down gracefully
  4. Waits for completion - Ensures old workers finish their current tasks
  5. Applies migrations - Runs migrations in a transaction
  6. Registers and starts - Begins processing tasks with the new schema

This happens automatically on every orchestrator startup.

What's Next?