QTune: A Query-Aware Database Tuning System with Deep Reinforcement Learning

Summary: QTune uses query featurization and a Double-State DDPG actor–critic model to jointly exploit SQL features and database state for configuration tuning. It supports query-, workload-, and cluster-level tuning across three DBMSs, outperforming prior methods. (summarized by gpt-5.6-luna on Jul 24 2026)

Paper ID: h721a64cdd90a0a40
Venue: VLDB
Year: 2019
Pagerank: 0.0001874043
Overall Rank: 411 | 97.25%
DOI: 10.14778/3352063.3352129
PDF: Download (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

Incoming Non-self Citations Over Time

Authors

1. Guoliang Li (Tsinghua University)
2. Xuanhe Zhou (Tsinghua University)
3. Shifu Li (Huawei)
4. Bo Gao (Huawei)

BibTeX Citation

@article{li_vldb19,
        title = {{QTune: A Query-Aware Database Tuning System with Deep Reinforcement Learning}},
        author = {Li, Guoliang and Zhou, Xuanhe and Li, Shifu and Gao, Bo},
        journal = {PVLDB},
        series = {{VLDB} '19},
        volume = {12},
        number = {12},
        pages = {2118--2130},
        doi = {10.14778/3352063.3352129},
        url = {https://doi.org/10.14778/3352063.3352129},
        year = {2019}
}

Incoming Citations (Sorted by Pagerank)

Showing 50 of 91 citing papers.

Rank	Citing Paper	Year	Venue	Pagerank
453	An End-to-End Learning-based Cost Estimator	2020	VLDB	0.0001801482
1,238	DB-BERT: A Database Tuning Tool that "Reads the Manual"	2022	SIGMOD	0.00011375179
1,294	An Inquiry into Machine Learning-based Automatic Configuration Tuning Services on Real-World Database Management Systems	2021	VLDB	0.00011129451
1,656	D-Bot: Database Diagnosis System using Large Language Models	2024	VLDB	9.948529e-05
1,700	Black or White? How to Develop an AutoTuner for Memory-based Analytics	2020	SIGMOD	9.8224761e-05
2,227	GPTuner: A Manual-Reading Database Tuning System via GPT-Guided Bayesian Optimization	2024	VLDB	8.7924681e-05
2,389	A Learned Query Rewrite System using Monte Carlo Tree Search	2022	VLDB	8.5228689e-05
2,572	ResTune: Resource Oriented Tuning Boosted by Meta-Learning for Cloud Databases	2021	SIGMOD	8.2581875e-05
2,696	Cost-based or Learning-based? A Hybrid Query Optimizer for Query Plan Selection	2022	VLDB	8.1068354e-05
2,768	Query Performance Prediction for Concurrent Queries using Graph Embedding	2020	VLDB	8.0199086e-05
2,779	Facilitating Database Tuning with Hyper-Parameter Optimization: A Comprehensive Experimental Evaluation	2022	VLDB	8.0085666e-05
2,913	AI Meets Database: AI4DB and DB4AI	2021	SIGMOD	7.855786e-05
3,057	LlamaTune: Sample-Efficient DBMS Configuration Tuning	2022	VLDB	7.6865211e-05
3,481	LOGER: A Learned Optimizer towards Generating Efficient and Robust Query Execution Plans	2023	VLDB	7.2463722e-05
3,486	HUNTER: An Online Cloud Database Hybrid Tuning System for Personalized Requirements	2022	SIGMOD	7.2428834e-05
3,575	Make Your Database System Dream of Electric Sheep: Towards Self-Driving Operation	2021	VLDB	7.1769215e-05
3,655	UDO: Universal Database Optimization using Reinforcement Learning	2021	VLDB	7.1137504e-05
3,679	Leaper: A Learned Prefetcher for Cache Invalidation in LSM-tree based Storage Engines	2020	VLDB	7.0849238e-05
3,687	openGauss: An Autonomous Database System	2021	VLDB	7.0797286e-05
3,783	HTAP Databases: What is New and What is Next	2022	SIGMOD	7.0016354e-05
3,839	Automatic Database Configuration Debugging using Retrieval-Augmented Language Models	2025	SIGMOD	6.9704205e-05
3,959	MB2: Decomposed Behavior Modeling for Self-Driving Database Management Systems	2021	SIGMOD	6.8804723e-05
4,101	Towards Dynamic and Safe Configuration Tuning for Cloud Databases	2022	SIGMOD	6.7930727e-05
4,247	LEON: A New Framework for ML-Aided Query Optimization	2023	VLDB	6.6920059e-05
4,508	LearnedSQLGen: Constraint-aware SQL Generation using Reinforcement Learning	2022	SIGMOD	6.5553854e-05
4,698	LOCAT: Low-Overhead Online Configuration Auto-Tuning of Spark SQL Applications	2022	SIGMOD	6.4476818e-05
4,703	Learned Cardinality Estimation for Similarity Queries	2021	SIGMOD	6.4458272e-05
4,720	PreQR: Pre-training Representation for SQL Understanding	2022	SIGMOD	6.4353798e-05
4,765	Machine Learning for Databases	2021	VLDB	6.4166895e-05
5,098	DBPA: A Benchmark for Transactional Database Performance Anomalies	2023	SIGMOD	6.2631174e-05
5,211	Database Workload Characterization with Query Plan Encoders	2022	VLDB	6.2141929e-05
5,304	An Efficient Transfer Learning Based Configuration Adviser for Database Tuning	2024	VLDB	6.1758143e-05
5,453	Eraser: Eliminating Performance Regression on Learned Query Optimizer	2024	VLDB	6.1077838e-05
5,728	Detect, Distill and Update: Learned DB Systems Facing Out of Distribution Data	2023	SIGMOD	5.9979958e-05
5,854	Modeling Shifting Workloads for Learned Database Systems	2024	SIGMOD	5.9520525e-05
5,965	DEX: Scalable Range Indexing on Disaggregated Memory	2024	VLDB	5.9144433e-05
5,982	Towards instance-optimized data systems	2021	VLDB	5.9096991e-05
6,046	Efficient and Effective Similar Subtrajectory Search with Deep Reinforcement Learning	2020	VLDB	5.8881195e-05
6,137	Learning to Optimize LSM-trees: Towards A Reinforcement Learning based Key-Value Store for Dynamic Workloads	2023	SIGMOD	5.8576977e-05
6,402	A Unified Transferable Model for ML-Enhanced DBMS	2022	CIDR	5.7800842e-05
6,464	Towards General and Efficient Online Tuning for Spark	2023	VLDB	5.759941e-05
6,752	A Unified and Efficient Coordinating Framework for Autonomous DBMS Tuning	2023	SIGMOD	5.6733557e-05
7,092	E2ETune: End-to-End Knob Tuning via Fine-tuned Generative Language Model	2025	VLDB	5.5868637e-05
7,394	ADOPT: Adaptively Optimizing Attribute Orders for Worst-Case Optimal Join Algorithms via Reinforcement Learning	2023	VLDB	5.5202266e-05
7,517	DBMind: A Self-Driving Platform in openGauss	2021	VLDB	5.4895762e-05
7,525	On the Efficiency of K-Means Clustering: Evaluation, Optimization, and Algorithm Selection	2021	VLDB	5.4868603e-05
7,715	Tastes Great! Less Filling! High Performance and Accurate Training Data Collection for Self-Driving Database Management Systems	2022	SIGMOD	5.4556951e-05
7,925	CAMAL: Optimizing LSM-trees via Active Learning	2024	SIGMOD	5.4086685e-05
7,997	The Holon Approach for Simultaneously Tuning Multiple Components in a Self-Driving Database Management System with Machine Learning via Synthesized Proto-Actions	2024	VLDB	5.3938336e-05
8,026	A Spark Optimizer for Adaptive, Fine-Grained Parameter Tuning	2024	VLDB	5.3884724e-05

Outgoing Citations (Sorted by Pagerank)

Showing 7 of 7 cited papers.

Citations counted here include only citations to other VLDB/SIGMOD/CIDR/PODS papers in this database.

Rank	Cited Paper	Year	Venue	Pagerank
74	Automatic Database Management System Tuning Through Large-scale Machine Learning	2017	SIGMOD	0.00037164008
309	An End-to-End Automatic Cloud Database Tuning System Using Deep Reinforcement Learning	2019	SIGMOD	0.0002143249
313	Tuning Database Configuration Parameters with iTuned	2009	VLDB	0.00021288111
453	An End-to-End Learning-based Cost Estimator	2020	VLDB	0.0001801482
550	SageDB: A Learned Database System	2019	CIDR	0.00016525249
775	Self-tuning Database Technology and Information Services: from Wishful Thinking to Viable Engineering	2002	VLDB	0.00014062388
6,404	Human-in-the-loop Data Integration	2017	VLDB	5.7797097e-05

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