What Is Database Cloning?
Database cloning creates a copy of a PostgreSQL dataset for testing, analytics, or migration rehearsal, preserving schema and data state at a known point in time.
Why It Matters for PostgreSQL Performance
In PostgreSQL performance work, cloning improves repeatability by letting teams rerun tests from the same starting dataset state.
Practical Benchmarking Context
When benchmarking with pgbench, clone before each test cycle if you need consistent pre-test data distribution.
Use this term together with workload shape, concurrency level, and scale factor when interpreting pgbench outputs. Isolated values can be misleading without full run context.
Example
Example: Clone production data into a staging environment, anonymize sensitive fields, then run load tests.