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: 0.00018315867
Overall Rank: 437 | 97.07%
DOI: 10.14778/3352063.3352129

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 89 citing papers.

Rank	Citing Paper	Year	Venue	Pagerank
461	An End-to-End Learning-based Cost Estimator	2020	VLDB	0.00017829982
1,250	DB-BERT: A Database Tuning Tool that "Reads the Manual"	2022	SIGMOD	0.00011339256
1,289	An Inquiry into Machine Learning-based Automatic Configuration Tuning Services on Real-World Database Management Systems	2021	VLDB	0.00011162479
1,658	D-Bot: Database Diagnosis System using Large Language Models	2024	VLDB	9.9642078e-05
1,699	Black or White? How to Develop an AutoTuner for Memory-based Analytics	2020	SIGMOD	9.8445322e-05
2,231	GPTuner: A Manual-Reading Database Tuning System via GPT-Guided Bayesian Optimization	2024	VLDB	8.7982985e-05
2,395	A Learned Query Rewrite System using Monte Carlo Tree Search	2022	VLDB	8.5281914e-05
2,690	Cost-based or Learning-based? A Hybrid Query Optimizer for Query Plan Selection	2022	VLDB	8.1258173e-05
2,720	ResTune: Resource Oriented Tuning Boosted by Meta-Learning for Cloud Databases	2021	SIGMOD	8.0966919e-05
2,772	Facilitating Database Tuning with Hyper-Parameter Optimization: A Comprehensive Experimental Evaluation	2022	VLDB	8.035288e-05
2,842	Query Performance Prediction for Concurrent Queries using Graph Embedding	2020	VLDB	7.949193e-05
2,908	AI Meets Database: AI4DB and DB4AI	2021	SIGMOD	7.8742664e-05
3,051	LlamaTune: Sample-Efficient DBMS Configuration Tuning	2022	VLDB	7.7055931e-05
3,486	HUNTER: An Online Cloud Database Hybrid Tuning System for Personalized Requirements	2022	SIGMOD	7.2636102e-05
3,487	LOGER: A Learned Optimizer towards Generating Efficient and Robust Query Execution Plans	2023	VLDB	7.263041e-05
3,590	Make Your Database System Dream of Electric Sheep: Towards Self-Driving Operation	2021	VLDB	7.1865343e-05
3,645	UDO: Universal Database Optimization using Reinforcement Learning	2021	VLDB	7.1397796e-05
3,671	Leaper: A Learned Prefetcher for Cache Invalidation in LSM-tree based Storage Engines	2020	VLDB	7.1100217e-05
3,682	openGauss: An Autonomous Database System	2021	VLDB	7.1013922e-05
3,777	HTAP Databases: What is New and What is Next	2022	SIGMOD	7.0268163e-05
3,965	MB2: Decomposed Behavior Modeling for Self-Driving Database Management Systems	2021	SIGMOD	6.8918628e-05
4,079	Towards Dynamic and Safe Configuration Tuning for Cloud Databases	2022	SIGMOD	6.818264e-05
4,114	Automatic Database Configuration Debugging using Retrieval-Augmented Language Models	2025	SIGMOD	6.7971182e-05
4,258	LEON: A New Framework for ML-Aided Query Optimization	2023	VLDB	6.6994722e-05
4,482	LearnedSQLGen: Constraint-aware SQL Generation using Reinforcement Learning	2022	SIGMOD	6.5802486e-05
4,681	LOCAT: Low-Overhead Online Configuration Auto-Tuning of Spark SQL Applications	2022	SIGMOD	6.4721364e-05
4,688	Learned Cardinality Estimation for Similarity Queries	2021	SIGMOD	6.4697463e-05
4,707	PreQR: Pre-training Representation for SQL Understanding	2022	SIGMOD	6.4587914e-05
4,741	Machine Learning for Databases	2021	VLDB	6.4410027e-05
5,077	DBPA: A Benchmark for Transactional Database Performance Anomalies	2023	SIGMOD	6.2858696e-05
5,194	Database Workload Characterization with Query Plan Encoders	2022	VLDB	6.2353557e-05
5,286	An Efficient Transfer Learning Based Configuration Adviser for Database Tuning	2024	VLDB	6.1971399e-05
5,456	Eraser: Eliminating Performance Regression on Learned Query Optimizer	2024	VLDB	6.1239873e-05
5,716	Detect, Distill and Update: Learned DB Systems Facing Out of Distribution Data	2023	SIGMOD	6.0194657e-05
5,865	Modeling Shifting Workloads for Learned Database Systems	2024	SIGMOD	5.9659203e-05
5,949	DEX: Scalable Range Indexing on Disaggregated Memory	2024	VLDB	5.9368754e-05
5,974	Towards instance-optimized data systems	2021	VLDB	5.9305575e-05
6,031	Efficient and Effective Similar Subtrajectory Search with Deep Reinforcement Learning	2020	VLDB	5.9104518e-05
6,124	Learning to Optimize LSM-trees: Towards A Reinforcement Learning based Key-Value Store for Dynamic Workloads	2023	SIGMOD	5.8788211e-05
6,416	A Unified Transferable Model for ML-Enhanced DBMS	2022	CIDR	5.7920805e-05
6,450	Towards General and Efficient Online Tuning for Spark	2023	VLDB	5.7817872e-05
6,726	A Unified and Efficient Coordinating Framework for Autonomous DBMS Tuning	2023	SIGMOD	5.6948731e-05
7,070	E2ETune: End-to-End Knob Tuning via Fine-tuned Generative Language Model	2025	VLDB	5.6080535e-05
7,367	ADOPT: Adaptively Optimizing Attribute Orders for Worst-Case Optimal Join Algorithms via Reinforcement Learning	2023	VLDB	5.5411636e-05
7,492	DBMind: A Self-Driving Platform in openGauss	2021	VLDB	5.510397e-05
7,502	On the Efficiency of K-Means Clustering: Evaluation, Optimization, and Algorithm Selection	2021	VLDB	5.5076707e-05
7,905	CAMAL: Optimizing LSM-trees via Active Learning	2024	SIGMOD	5.4291824e-05
7,915	Tastes Great! Less Filling! High Performance and Accurate Training Data Collection for Self-Driving Database Management Systems	2022	SIGMOD	5.4276987e-05
7,977	The Holon Approach for Simultaneously Tuning Multiple Components in a Self-Driving Database Management System with Machine Learning via Synthesized Proto-Actions	2024	VLDB	5.4142519e-05
8,004	A Spark Optimizer for Adaptive, Fine-Grained Parameter Tuning	2024	VLDB	5.4089097e-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
78	Automatic Database Management System Tuning Through Large-scale Machine Learning	2017	SIGMOD	0.00036684414
314	An End-to-End Automatic Cloud Database Tuning System Using Deep Reinforcement Learning	2019	SIGMOD	0.00021282642
322	Tuning Database Configuration Parameters with iTuned	2009	VLDB	0.00021041865
461	An End-to-End Learning-based Cost Estimator	2020	VLDB	0.00017829982
555	SageDB: A Learned Database System	2019	CIDR	0.00016506678
780	Self-tuning Database Technology and Information Services: from Wishful Thinking to Viable Engineering	2002	VLDB	0.00014025444
6,397	Human-in-the-loop Data Integration	2017	VLDB	5.7989499e-05

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