---
title: TimescaleDB configuration and tuning | Tiger Data Docs
description: Configure TimescaleDB settings related to policies, query planning and execution, and administration
---

Just as you can tune settings in PostgreSQL, TimescaleDB provides a number of configuration settings that may be useful to your specific installation and performance needs. These can also be set within the `postgresql.conf` file or as command-line parameters when starting PostgreSQL.

## Query planning and execution

### `timescaledb.enable_chunkwise_aggregation (bool)`

If enabled, aggregations are converted into partial aggregations during query planning. The first part of the aggregation is executed on a per-chunk basis. Then, these partial results are combined and finalized. Splitting aggregations decreases the size of the created hash tables and increases data locality, which speeds up queries.

### `timescaledb.vectorized_aggregation (bool)`

Enables or disables the vectorized optimizations in the query executor. For example, the `sum()` aggregation function on compressed chunks can be optimized in this way.

### `timescaledb.enable_merge_on_cagg_refresh (bool)`

Set to `ON` to dramatically decrease the amount of data written on a continuous aggregate in the presence of a small number of changes, reduce the i/o cost of refreshing a continuous aggregate, and generate fewer Write-Ahead Logs (WAL). Only works for continuous aggregates that don’t have compression enabled.

Please refer to the [Grand Unified Configuration (GUC) parameters](/docs/reference/timescaledb/configuration/gucs/index.md) for a complete list.

## Policies

### `timescaledb.max_background_workers (int)`

Max background worker processes allocated to TimescaleDB. Set to at least 1 + the number of databases loaded with the TimescaleDB extension in a PostgreSQL instance. Default value is 16.

## Self-hosted TimescaleDB tuning

### `timescaledb.disable_load (bool)`

Disable the loading of the actual extension.

## Administration

### `timescaledb.restoring (bool)`

Set TimescaleDB in restoring mode. It is disabled by default.

### `timescaledb.license (string)`

Change access to features based on the TimescaleDB license in use. For example, setting `timescaledb.license` to `apache` limits TimescaleDB to features that are implemented under the Apache 2 license. The default value is `timescale`, which allows access to all features.

### `timescaledb.telemetry_level (enum)`

Telemetry settings level. Level used to determine which telemetry to send. Can be set to `off` or `basic`. Defaults to `basic`.

### `timescaledb.last_tuned (string)`

Records last time `timescaledb-tune` ran.

### `timescaledb.last_tuned_version (string)`

Version of `timescaledb-tune` used to tune when it runs.