diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 02450709d1..f6f2b32ccc 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -288,6 +288,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "pageserver_api",
  "pageserver_client",
  "postgres_connection",
+ "r2d2",
  "reqwest",
  "serde",
  "serde_json",
@@ -1650,6 +1651,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "diesel_derives",
  "itoa",
  "pq-sys",
+ "r2d2",
  "serde_json",
 ]
 
@@ -4153,6 +4155,17 @@ dependencies = [
  "proc-macro2",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "r2d2"
+version = "0.8.10"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "51de85fb3fb6524929c8a2eb85e6b6d363de4e8c48f9e2c2eac4944abc181c93"
+dependencies = [
+ "log",
+ "parking_lot 0.12.1",
+ "scheduled-thread-pool",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "rand"
 version = "0.7.3"
@@ -4866,6 +4879,15 @@ dependencies = [
  "windows-sys 0.42.0",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "scheduled-thread-pool"
+version = "0.2.7"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "3cbc66816425a074528352f5789333ecff06ca41b36b0b0efdfbb29edc391a19"
+dependencies = [
+ "parking_lot 0.12.1",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "scopeguard"
 version = "1.1.0"
diff --git a/control_plane/attachment_service/Cargo.toml b/control_plane/attachment_service/Cargo.toml
index d3c62d74d2..64cb67d386 100644
--- a/control_plane/attachment_service/Cargo.toml
+++ b/control_plane/attachment_service/Cargo.toml
@@ -24,7 +24,8 @@ tokio.workspace = true
 tokio-util.workspace = true
 tracing.workspace = true
 
-diesel = { version = "2.1.4", features = ["serde_json", "postgres"] }
+diesel = { version = "2.1.4", features = ["serde_json", "postgres", "r2d2"] }
+r2d2 = { version = "0.8.10" }
 
 utils = { path = "../../libs/utils/" }
 metrics = { path = "../../libs/metrics/" }
diff --git a/control_plane/attachment_service/src/persistence.rs b/control_plane/attachment_service/src/persistence.rs
index 574441c409..924bc24d76 100644
--- a/control_plane/attachment_service/src/persistence.rs
+++ b/control_plane/attachment_service/src/persistence.rs
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 use std::collections::HashMap;
 use std::str::FromStr;
+use std::time::Duration;
 
 use camino::Utf8Path;
 use camino::Utf8PathBuf;
@@ -44,7 +45,7 @@ use crate::PlacementPolicy;
 /// updated, and reads of nodes are always from memory, not the database.  We only require that
 /// we can UPDATE a node's scheduling mode reasonably quickly to mark a bad node offline.
 pub struct Persistence {
-    database_url: String,
+    connection_pool: diesel::r2d2::Pool<diesel::r2d2::ConnectionManager<PgConnection>>,
 
     // In test environments, we support loading+saving a JSON file.  This is temporary, for the benefit of
     // test_compatibility.py, so that we don't have to commit to making the database contents fully backward/forward
@@ -64,6 +65,8 @@ pub(crate) enum DatabaseError {
     Query(#[from] diesel::result::Error),
     #[error(transparent)]
     Connection(#[from] diesel::result::ConnectionError),
+    #[error(transparent)]
+    ConnectionPool(#[from] r2d2::Error),
     #[error("Logical error: {0}")]
     Logical(String),
 }
@@ -71,9 +74,31 @@ pub(crate) enum DatabaseError {
 pub(crate) type DatabaseResult<T> = Result<T, DatabaseError>;
 
 impl Persistence {
+    // The default postgres connection limit is 100.  We use up to 99, to leave one free for a human admin under
+    // normal circumstances.  This assumes we have exclusive use of the database cluster to which we connect.
+    const MAX_CONNECTIONS: u32 = 99;
+
+    // We don't want to keep a lot of connections alive: close them down promptly if they aren't being used.
+    const IDLE_CONNECTION_TIMEOUT: Duration = Duration::from_secs(10);
+    const MAX_CONNECTION_LIFETIME: Duration = Duration::from_secs(60);
+
     pub fn new(database_url: String, json_path: Option<Utf8PathBuf>) -> Self {
+        let manager = diesel::r2d2::ConnectionManager::<PgConnection>::new(database_url);
+
+        // We will use a connection pool: this is primarily to _limit_ our connection count, rather than to optimize time
+        // to execute queries (database queries are not generally on latency-sensitive paths).
+        let connection_pool = diesel::r2d2::Pool::builder()
+            .max_size(Self::MAX_CONNECTIONS)
+            .max_lifetime(Some(Self::MAX_CONNECTION_LIFETIME))
+            .idle_timeout(Some(Self::IDLE_CONNECTION_TIMEOUT))
+            // Always keep at least one connection ready to go
+            .min_idle(Some(1))
+            .test_on_check_out(true)
+            .build(manager)
+            .expect("Could not build connection pool");
+
         Self {
-            database_url,
+            connection_pool,
             json_path,
         }
     }
@@ -84,14 +109,10 @@ impl Persistence {
         F: Fn(&mut PgConnection) -> DatabaseResult<R> + Send + 'static,
         R: Send + 'static,
     {
-        let database_url = self.database_url.clone();
-        tokio::task::spawn_blocking(move || -> DatabaseResult<R> {
-            // TODO: connection pooling, such as via diesel::r2d2
-            let mut conn = PgConnection::establish(&database_url)?;
-            func(&mut conn)
-        })
-        .await
-        .expect("Task panic")
+        let mut conn = self.connection_pool.get()?;
+        tokio::task::spawn_blocking(move || -> DatabaseResult<R> { func(&mut conn) })
+            .await
+            .expect("Task panic")
     }
 
     /// When a node is first registered, persist it before using it for anything
diff --git a/control_plane/attachment_service/src/service.rs b/control_plane/attachment_service/src/service.rs
index f3957191c9..6941c71c2d 100644
--- a/control_plane/attachment_service/src/service.rs
+++ b/control_plane/attachment_service/src/service.rs
@@ -117,7 +117,9 @@ impl From<DatabaseError> for ApiError {
         match err {
             DatabaseError::Query(e) => ApiError::InternalServerError(e.into()),
             // FIXME: ApiError doesn't have an Unavailable variant, but ShuttingDown maps to 503.
-            DatabaseError::Connection(_e) => ApiError::ShuttingDown,
+            DatabaseError::Connection(_) | DatabaseError::ConnectionPool(_) => {
+                ApiError::ShuttingDown
+            }
             DatabaseError::Logical(reason) => {
                 ApiError::InternalServerError(anyhow::anyhow!(reason))
             }