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9.4

CPU bound

Asked by rstaveley in PostgreSQL Database

Tags: cpu, postgresql, bound

I have a 48M PostgreSQL database on a 2GB dedicated Linux server with one CPU. It is taking a pounding and I've seeing very sluggish performance. Due to the importance of the load (it's the run up to a live event and that's the reason for the traffic), I want to do as limited experimentation as possible.

It's not too bad here...

top - 23:26:38 up 144 days, 10:26,  4 users,  load average: 1.35, 1.21, 1.10
Tasks:  75 total,   2 running,  73 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu(s):  0.0% us,  0.0% sy,  0.0% ni, 99.7% id,  0.0% wa,  0.3% hi,  0.0% si
Mem:   3631740k total,  1969348k used,  1662392k free,    92852k buffers
Swap:  4008120k total,        0k used,  4008120k free,  1757768k cached

...but I've seen those load averages get up to > 5.0 for long periods, and yes it *is* postmaster munching the mips :-(

The postgresql.conf file has been set up with defaults, and I'm planning to apply the following changes:

  #shared_buffers = 1000          # min 16, at least max_connections*2, 8KB each
  shared_buffers = 8192            # Rob S. 2006-11-17 - it is only a 50M data set, but we can spare 64M of RAM
  #vacuum_mem = 8192           # min 1024, size in KB
  vacuum_mem = 16384            # Rob S. 2006-11-17 - 16MB
  #effective_cache_size = 1000    # typically 8KB each
  effective_cache_size = 10240    # Rob S. This is 80M, which is plenty for our 50M database!

The database is: PostgreSQL 8.1.4 on i386-pc-linux-gnu, compiled by GCC cc (GCC) 3.3.5 (Debian 1:3.3.5-13)

I have never vacuumed. I'm assume that PostgreSQL does that for me now.

Here are my questions:

(1) Are these sane changes and in any way likely to reduce the CPU load?

(2) Would explicit VACUUMing be worth it?
[+][-]11/18/06 07:59 AM, ID: 17971717Accepted Solution

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About this solution

Zone: PostgreSQL Database
Tags: cpu, postgresql, bound
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Solution Provided By: earthman2
Participating Experts: 1
Solution Grade: A
 
[+][-]11/18/06 05:26 AM, ID: 17971344Expert Comment

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[+][-]11/18/06 10:28 AM, ID: 17972102Expert Comment

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[+][-]11/18/06 10:47 AM, ID: 17972143Author Comment

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[+][-]11/18/06 11:56 AM, ID: 17972304Author Comment

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