Robust query execution plan selection using machine learning with predictive uncertainties

Abstract

Aspects of the invention include techniques for robust query execution plan selection. A non-limiting example method includes training a model to estimate, for an input including a query and one or more plans, an execution time for each plan and a respective uncertainty of the execution time. A new query and a search space including a plurality of candidate plans are input to the model. Given an estimated distribution for the execution time of each candidate plan, a suboptimality risk is computed for each candidate plan. A plan of the plurality of candidate plans is selected according to a plan selection policy. The plan selection policy includes at least one of: selecting a plan by assuming that plans have higher costs proportional to an estimated standard deviation of their respective uncertainty; and selecting a plan with minimum risk using model uncertainty, data uncertainty, or a total uncertainty.