WAL Replay Buffer Invalidation Conflicts During Page Truncation on Read Replicas

Hello All,

I'm experiencing significant read query blocking on Aurora PostgreSQL read
replicas during VACUUM relation truncation, particularly with TOAST tables.
This affects a high-traffic service (~3000 req/sec) and causes application
downtime.

*Problem Summary:*
WAL replay of relation truncation operations on read replicas triggers
buffer invalidation that requires AccessExclusive locks, blocking
concurrent read queries for extended periods.

*Environment Details:*
- Aurora PostgreSQL (read replica setup)
- Workload: Async writes to primary, read-only queries on replica
- TOAST table with ~4KB average compressed column size
- maintenance_work_mem: 2087MB

* Observed Behavior:*

* [23541]: select gzipped_dto from <table> dl1_0 where
(dl1_0.entity_id,dl1_0.language_code) in (($1,$2)) 2025-06-28 11:57:34
UTC: process 23574 still waiting for AccessShareLock on relation 20655
after 1000.035 ms*

The blocking coincides with substantial TOAST table truncation:

*2025-06-28 11:57:39 UTC::@:[8399]:LOG: automatic vacuum of table
"delivery.pg_toast.pg_toast_20652": index scans: 1 pages: 212964 removed,
434375 remain, 78055 scanned (12.06% of total) tuples: 198922 removed,
2015440 remain, 866 are dead but not yet removable removable cutoff:
1066590201, which was 783 XIDs old when operation ended frozen: 3 pages
from table (0.00% of total) had 19 tuples frozen index scan needed: 39600
pages from table (6.12% of total) had 199413 dead item identifiers removed
index "pg_toast_20652_index": pages: 16131 in total, 35 newly deleted, 7574
currently deleted, 7539 reusable I/O timings: read: 173469.911 ms, write:
0.000 ms avg read rate: 9.198 MB/s, avg write rate: 0.000 MB/s buffer
usage: 220870 hits, 213040 misses, 0 dirtied WAL usage: 0 records, 0 full
page images, 0 bytes system usage: CPU: user: 2.97 s, system: 1.86 s,
elapsed: 180.95 s*

*Analysis:*
The vacuum reclaimed 212,964 pages (33% of the relation), indicating
legitimate space reclamation. With maintenance_work_mem set to 2087MB,
memory constraints aren't limiting the vacuum process. However, WAL replay
of the truncation
operation on the read replica requires invalidating these pages from
shared_buffers, which conflicts with ongoing read queries.

*Questions for Discussion:*

1. Batch Buffer Invalidation: Could buffer invalidation during WAL replay
be batched or deferred to reduce lock contention duration?
2. Replica-Specific Truncation Policy: Should read replicas have
different truncation thresholds
(REL_TRUNCATE_MINIMUM/REL_TRUNCATE_FRACTION) to balance space reclamation
against query availability?
3. Cloud-Native Considerations: In cloud environments like Aurora with
separate storage layers, is immediate buffer invalidation during truncation
replay necessary, or could this be optimized?
4. Lock Duration Optimization: The current truncation process holds
AccessExclusive locks during the entire invalidation. Could this be
shortened through incremental processing?

*Potential Approaches:*
- Implement configurable truncation behavior for standby servers
- Add batching/throttling to buffer invalidation during WAL replay
- Provide a way to defer truncation replay during high read activity
periods

This issue particularly affects TOAST tables due to their chunked storage
pattern creating more opportunities for dead space, but the core problem
applies to any significant relation truncation on read replicas.

Has anyone else encountered this issue? Are there existing configuration
options or patches that address WAL replay buffer invalidation conflicts?

Thanks for any insights.

Thanks,
Dharin