Thread

  1. db growing out of proportion

    Tomas Szepe <szepe@pinerecords.com> — 2003-05-29T16:32:39Z

    Hello everybody,
    
    I'm facing a simple yet gravely problem with postgresql 7.3.2 on x86 Linux.
    My db is used to store IP accounting statistics for about 30 C's.  There are
    a couple truly trivial tables such as the one below:
    
    CREATE TABLE stats_min
    (
    	ip	inet		NOT NULL,
    	start	timestamp	NOT NULL default CURRENT_TIMESTAMP(0),
    	intlen	int4		NOT NULL default 60,
    	d_in	int8		NOT NULL,
    	d_out	int8		NOT NULL,
    
    	constraint "stats_min_pkey" PRIMARY KEY ("ip", "start")
    );
    CREATE INDEX stats_min_start ON stats_min (start);
    
    A typical transaction committed on these tables looks like this:
    
    BEGIN WORK
    	DELETE ...
    	UPDATE/INSERT ...
    COMMIT WORK
    
    Trouble is, as the rows in the tables get deleted/inserted/updated
    (the frequency being a couple thousand rows per minute), the database
    is growing out of proportion in size.  After about a week, I have
    to redump the db by hand so as to get query times back to sensible
    figures.  A transaction that takes ~50 seconds before the redump will
    then complete in under 5 seconds (the corresponding data/base/ dir having
    shrunk from ~2 GB to ~0.6GB).
    
    A nightly VACCUM ANALYZE is no use.
    
    A VACUUM FULL is no use.
    
    A VACUUM FULL followed by REINDEX is no use.
    
    It seems that only a full redump involving "pg_dump olddb | \
    psql newdb" is capable of restoring the system to its working
    glory.
    
    Please accept my apologies if I've overlooked a relevant piece of
    information in the docs.  I'm in an urgent need of getting this
    problem resolved.
    
    -- 
    Tomas Szepe <szepe@pinerecords.com>
    
    
  2. Re: db growing out of proportion

    Stephan Szabo <sszabo@megazone23.bigpanda.com> — 2003-05-29T17:37:38Z

    On Thu, 29 May 2003, Tomas Szepe wrote:
    
    > Hello everybody,
    >
    > I'm facing a simple yet gravely problem with postgresql 7.3.2 on x86 Linux.
    > My db is used to store IP accounting statistics for about 30 C's.  There are
    > a couple truly trivial tables such as the one below:
    >
    > CREATE TABLE stats_min
    > (
    > 	ip	inet		NOT NULL,
    > 	start	timestamp	NOT NULL default CURRENT_TIMESTAMP(0),
    > 	intlen	int4		NOT NULL default 60,
    > 	d_in	int8		NOT NULL,
    > 	d_out	int8		NOT NULL,
    >
    > 	constraint "stats_min_pkey" PRIMARY KEY ("ip", "start")
    > );
    > CREATE INDEX stats_min_start ON stats_min (start);
    >
    > A typical transaction committed on these tables looks like this:
    >
    > BEGIN WORK
    > 	DELETE ...
    > 	UPDATE/INSERT ...
    > COMMIT WORK
    >
    > Trouble is, as the rows in the tables get deleted/inserted/updated
    > (the frequency being a couple thousand rows per minute), the database
    > is growing out of proportion in size.  After about a week, I have
    > to redump the db by hand so as to get query times back to sensible
    > figures.  A transaction that takes ~50 seconds before the redump will
    > then complete in under 5 seconds (the corresponding data/base/ dir having
    > shrunk from ~2 GB to ~0.6GB).
    >
    > A nightly VACCUM ANALYZE is no use.
    >
    > A VACUUM FULL is no use.
    >
    > A VACUUM FULL followed by REINDEX is no use.
    
    Is the space being taken up by stats_min, this index, some other object?
    I'm not 100% sure, but after vacuums maybe
    select * from pg_class order by relpages desc limit 10;
    will give a good idea.
    
    What does VACUUM FULL VERBOSE stats_min; give you?
    
    
    
  3. Re: db growing out of proportion

    Tomas Szepe <szepe@pinerecords.com> — 2003-05-30T07:24:42Z

    > [sszabo@megazone23.bigpanda.com]
    > 
    > > Trouble is, as the rows in the tables get deleted/inserted/updated
    > > (the frequency being a couple thousand rows per minute), the database
    > > is growing out of proportion in size.  After about a week, I have
    > > to redump the db by hand so as to get query times back to sensible
    > > figures.  A transaction that takes ~50 seconds before the redump will
    > > then complete in under 5 seconds (the corresponding data/base/ dir having
    > > shrunk from ~2 GB to ~0.6GB).
    > >
    > > A nightly VACCUM ANALYZE is no use.
    > >
    > > A VACUUM FULL is no use.
    > >
    > > A VACUUM FULL followed by REINDEX is no use.
    > 
    > Is the space being taken up by stats_min, this index, some other object?
    
                 relname             | relkind | relpages |  reltuples  
    ---------------------------------+---------+----------+-------------
     stats_hr                        | r       |    61221 | 3.01881e+06
     stats_hr_pkey                   | i       |    26414 | 3.02239e+06
     stats_min_pkey                  | i       |    20849 |      953635
     stats_hr_start                  | i       |    17218 | 3.02142e+06
     stats_min_start                 | i       |    15284 |      949788
     stats_min                       | r       |    10885 |      948792
     authinfo_pkey                   | i       |     1630 |        1342
     authinfo                        | r       |     1004 |        1342
     contract_ips                    | r       |      865 |         565
     contract_ips_pkey               | i       |      605 |         565
    
    > What does VACUUM FULL VERBOSE stats_min; give you?
    
    Sorry, I can't run a VACUUM FULL at this time.
    We're in production use.
    
    -- 
    Tomas Szepe <szepe@pinerecords.com>
    
    
  4. Re: db growing out of proportion

    Peter Childs <blue.dragon@blueyonder.co.uk> — 2003-05-30T09:21:51Z

    On Fri, 30 May 2003, Tomas Szepe wrote:
    
    > > [sszabo@megazone23.bigpanda.com]
    > > 
    > > > Trouble is, as the rows in the tables get deleted/inserted/updated
    > > > (the frequency being a couple thousand rows per minute), the database
    > > > is growing out of proportion in size.  After about a week, I have
    > > > to redump the db by hand so as to get query times back to sensible
    > > > figures.  A transaction that takes ~50 seconds before the redump will
    > > > then complete in under 5 seconds (the corresponding data/base/ dir having
    > > > shrunk from ~2 GB to ~0.6GB).
    > > >
    > > > A nightly VACCUM ANALYZE is no use.
    > > >
    > > > A VACUUM FULL is no use.
    > > >
    > > > A VACUUM FULL followed by REINDEX is no use.
    > > 
    > > Is the space being taken up by stats_min, this index, some other object?
    > 
    >              relname             | relkind | relpages |  reltuples  
    > ---------------------------------+---------+----------+-------------
    >  stats_hr                        | r       |    61221 | 3.01881e+06
    >  stats_hr_pkey                   | i       |    26414 | 3.02239e+06
    >  stats_min_pkey                  | i       |    20849 |      953635
    >  stats_hr_start                  | i       |    17218 | 3.02142e+06
    >  stats_min_start                 | i       |    15284 |      949788
    >  stats_min                       | r       |    10885 |      948792
    >  authinfo_pkey                   | i       |     1630 |        1342
    >  authinfo                        | r       |     1004 |        1342
    >  contract_ips                    | r       |      865 |         565
    >  contract_ips_pkey               | i       |      605 |         565
    > 
    > > What does VACUUM FULL VERBOSE stats_min; give you?
    > 
    > Sorry, I can't run a VACUUM FULL at this time.
    > We're in production use.
    > 
    > 
    
    	Would more regular vacuum help. I think a vaccum every hour may do 
    the job. perhaps with an analyse every day. (I presume the statistics 
    don't change too much) 
    	While I don't surgest doing a vacuum more than twice an hour as 
    this would slow down the system with little gain more than once a day may 
    improve the speed and space usage.
    	Just an idea.
    
    Peter 
    
    
    
  5. Re: db growing out of proportion

    Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> — 2003-05-30T13:11:39Z

    Peter Childs <blue.dragon@blueyonder.co.uk> writes:
    > On Fri, 30 May 2003, Tomas Szepe wrote:
    >> Trouble is, as the rows in the tables get deleted/inserted/updated
    >> (the frequency being a couple thousand rows per minute), the database
    >> is growing out of proportion in size.
    
    > 	Would more regular vacuum help. I think a vaccum every hour may do 
    > the job.
    
    Also note that no amount of vacuuming will save you if the FSM is not
    large enough to keep track of all the free space.  The default FSM
    settings, like all the other default settings in Postgres, are set up
    for a small installation.  You'd probably need to raise them by at least
    a factor of 10 for this installation.
    
    			regards, tom lane
    
    
  6. Re: db growing out of proportion

    Todd Nemanich <todd@twopunks.org> — 2003-05-30T14:25:42Z

    I have a database with similar performance constraints. Our best 
    estimates put the turnover on our most active table at 350k tuples/day. 
    The hardware is a 4x1.4GHz Xeon w/ a RAID 1 disk setup, and the DB 
    floats around 500MB of disk space taken. Here is what we do to maintain 
    operations:
    
    1) Cron job @ 4:00AM that runs a full vacuum analyze on the DB, and 
    reindex on the major tables. (Reindex is to maintain index files in SHM) 
    An alerting feature pages the administrator if the job does not complete 
    within a reasonable amount of time.
    
    2) Every 15 minutes, a cron job runs a vacuum analyze on our five 
    largest tables. An alert is emailed to the administrator if a second 
    vacuum attempts to start before the previous completes.
    
    3) Every week, we review the disk usage numbers from daily peaks. This 
    determines if we need to increase our shmmax & shared buffers.
    
    Additionally, you may want to take a look at your query performance. Are 
    most of your queries doing sequential scans? In my system, the crucial 
    columns of the primary tables are int8 and float8 fields. I have those 
    indexed, and I get a serious performance boost by making sure all 
    SELECT/UPDATE/DELETE queries that use those columns in the WHERE have an 
    explicit ::int8 or ::float8 (Explain analyze is your friend). During 
    peak usage, there is an order of magnitude difference (usually 10 to 
    15x) between queries doing sequential scans on the table, and queries 
    doing index scans. Might be worth investigating if your queries are 
    taking 5 seconds when your DB is fresh. HTH.
    
    
    
    Tomas Szepe wrote:
    > Hello everybody,
    > 
    > I'm facing a simple yet gravely problem with postgresql 7.3.2 on x86 Linux.
    > My db is used to store IP accounting statistics for about 30 C's.  There are
    > a couple truly trivial tables such as the one below:
    > 
    > CREATE TABLE stats_min
    > (
    > 	ip	inet		NOT NULL,
    > 	start	timestamp	NOT NULL default CURRENT_TIMESTAMP(0),
    > 	intlen	int4		NOT NULL default 60,
    > 	d_in	int8		NOT NULL,
    > 	d_out	int8		NOT NULL,
    > 
    > 	constraint "stats_min_pkey" PRIMARY KEY ("ip", "start")
    > );
    > CREATE INDEX stats_min_start ON stats_min (start);
    > 
    > A typical transaction committed on these tables looks like this:
    > 
    > BEGIN WORK
    > 	DELETE ...
    > 	UPDATE/INSERT ...
    > COMMIT WORK
    > 
    > Trouble is, as the rows in the tables get deleted/inserted/updated
    > (the frequency being a couple thousand rows per minute), the database
    > is growing out of proportion in size.  After about a week, I have
    > to redump the db by hand so as to get query times back to sensible
    > figures.  A transaction that takes ~50 seconds before the redump will
    > then complete in under 5 seconds (the corresponding data/base/ dir having
    > shrunk from ~2 GB to ~0.6GB).
    > 
    > A nightly VACCUM ANALYZE is no use.
    > 
    > A VACUUM FULL is no use.
    > 
    > A VACUUM FULL followed by REINDEX is no use.
    > 
    > It seems that only a full redump involving "pg_dump olddb | \
    > psql newdb" is capable of restoring the system to its working
    > glory.
    > 
    > Please accept my apologies if I've overlooked a relevant piece of
    > information in the docs.  I'm in an urgent need of getting this
    > problem resolved.
    > 
    
    
    
  7. Re: db growing out of proportion

    Stephan Szabo <sszabo@megazone23.bigpanda.com> — 2003-05-30T15:40:43Z

    On Fri, 30 May 2003, Tomas Szepe wrote:
    
    > > [sszabo@megazone23.bigpanda.com]
    > >
    > > > Trouble is, as the rows in the tables get deleted/inserted/updated
    > > > (the frequency being a couple thousand rows per minute), the database
    > > > is growing out of proportion in size.  After about a week, I have
    > > > to redump the db by hand so as to get query times back to sensible
    > > > figures.  A transaction that takes ~50 seconds before the redump will
    > > > then complete in under 5 seconds (the corresponding data/base/ dir having
    > > > shrunk from ~2 GB to ~0.6GB).
    > > >
    > > > A nightly VACCUM ANALYZE is no use.
    > > >
    > > > A VACUUM FULL is no use.
    > > >
    > > > A VACUUM FULL followed by REINDEX is no use.
    > >
    > > Is the space being taken up by stats_min, this index, some other object?
    >
    >              relname             | relkind | relpages |  reltuples
    > ---------------------------------+---------+----------+-------------
    >  stats_hr                        | r       |    61221 | 3.01881e+06
    >  stats_hr_pkey                   | i       |    26414 | 3.02239e+06
    >  stats_min_pkey                  | i       |    20849 |      953635
    >  stats_hr_start                  | i       |    17218 | 3.02142e+06
    >  stats_min_start                 | i       |    15284 |      949788
    >  stats_min                       | r       |    10885 |      948792
    >  authinfo_pkey                   | i       |     1630 |        1342
    >  authinfo                        | r       |     1004 |        1342
    >  contract_ips                    | r       |      865 |         565
    >  contract_ips_pkey               | i       |      605 |         565
    >
    > > What does VACUUM FULL VERBOSE stats_min; give you?
    >
    > Sorry, I can't run a VACUUM FULL at this time.
    > We're in production use.
    
    As Tom said, you probably need higher FSM settings, but also, do you have
    any long lived transactions (say from some kind of persistent connection
    system) that might be preventing vacuum from removing rows?
    
    
    
    
  8. Re: db growing out of proportion

    Tomas Szepe <szepe@pinerecords.com> — 2003-05-30T22:59:39Z

    > [tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us]
    > 
    > Peter Childs <blue.dragon@blueyonder.co.uk> writes:
    > > On Fri, 30 May 2003, Tomas Szepe wrote:
    > >> Trouble is, as the rows in the tables get deleted/inserted/updated
    > >> (the frequency being a couple thousand rows per minute), the database
    > >> is growing out of proportion in size.
    > 
    > > 	Would more regular vacuum help. I think a vaccum every hour may do 
    > > the job.
    > 
    > Also note that no amount of vacuuming will save you if the FSM is not
    > large enough to keep track of all the free space.  The default FSM
    > settings, like all the other default settings in Postgres, are set up
    > for a small installation.  You'd probably need to raise them by at least
    > a factor of 10 for this installation.
    
    Thanks, I'll try to tweak those settings and will let the list know how
    things went.
    
    -- 
    Tomas Szepe <szepe@pinerecords.com>
    
    
  9. Re: db growing out of proportion

    Tomas Szepe <szepe@pinerecords.com> — 2003-05-30T23:00:50Z

    > As Tom said, you probably need higher FSM settings, but also, do you have
    > any long lived transactions (say from some kind of persistent connection
    > system) that might be preventing vacuum from removing rows?
    
    No, not at all.
    
    -- 
    Tomas Szepe <szepe@pinerecords.com>
    
    
  10. Re: db growing out of proportion

    Tomas Szepe <szepe@pinerecords.com> — 2003-05-30T23:08:21Z

    > [todd@twopunks.org]
    > 
    > Additionally, you may want to take a look at your query performance. Are 
    > most of your queries doing sequential scans? In my system, the crucial 
    > columns of the primary tables are int8 and float8 fields. I have those 
    > indexed, and I get a serious performance boost by making sure all 
    > SELECT/UPDATE/DELETE queries that use those columns in the WHERE have an 
    > explicit ::int8 or ::float8 (Explain analyze is your friend). During 
    > peak usage, there is an order of magnitude difference (usually 10 to 
    > 15x) between queries doing sequential scans on the table, and queries 
    > doing index scans. Might be worth investigating if your queries are 
    > taking 5 seconds when your DB is fresh. HTH.
    
    Yes, I have taken special care to fine-tune all queries on authentic
    data.  The db setup works as expected in whatever respect with the
    exception of query times deterioration that apparently corelates to
    the db's on-disk size growth.
    
    Thanks for your suggestions,
    
    -- 
    Tomas Szepe <szepe@pinerecords.com>
    
    
  11. Re: db growing out of proportion

    Robert Creager <robert_creager@logicalchaos.org> — 2003-05-31T03:21:01Z

    On Fri, 30 May 2003 09:11:39 -0400
    Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> said something like:
    
    > 
    > Also note that no amount of vacuuming will save you if the FSM is not
    > large enough to keep track of all the free space.  The default FSM
    > settings, like all the other default settings in Postgres, are set up
    > for a small installation.  You'd probably need to raise them by at least
    > a factor of 10 for this installation.
    > 
    
    Tom,
    
    Thanks for the hint.  I just upped my shared_buffers to 8192, fsm_relations to 10000, fsm_pages to 100000, sort_mem to 64000, and an UPDATE which was taking over 2 hours dropped down to  1 to 2 minutes!
    
    Nice...
    
    Thanks,
    Rob
    
  12. Re: db growing out of proportion

    Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> — 2003-05-31T04:11:26Z

    Robert Creager <Robert_Creager@LogicalChaos.org> writes:
    > Thanks for the hint.  I just upped my shared_buffers to 8192, fsm_relations to 10000, fsm_pages to 100000, sort_mem to 64000, and an UPDATE which was taking over 2 hours dropped down to  1 to 2 minutes!
    
    Cool ... but it's not immediately obvious which of these changes did the
    trick for you.  What settings were you at before?  And what's the
    details of the problem query?
    
    The first three settings you mention all seem like reasonable choices,
    but I'd be hesitant to recommend 64M sort_mem for general use (it won't
    take very many concurrent sorts to drive you into the ground...).  So
    I'm interested to narrow down exactly what was the issue here.
    
    			regards, tom lane
    
    
  13. Re: db growing out of proportion

    Robert Creager <robert_creager@logicalchaos.org> — 2003-05-31T04:50:02Z

    On Sat, 31 May 2003 00:11:26 -0400
    Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> said something like:
    > 
    > Cool ... but it's not immediately obvious which of these changes did the
    > trick for you.  What settings were you at before?  And what's the
    > details of the problem query?
    > 
    > The first three settings you mention all seem like reasonable choices,
    > but I'd be hesitant to recommend 64M sort_mem for general use (it won't
    > take very many concurrent sorts to drive you into the ground...).  So
    > I'm interested to narrow down exactly what was the issue here.
    > 
    > 			regards, tom lane
    
    shared_buffers was 1024, now 8192
    max_fsm_relations was 1000, now 10000
    max_fsm_pages was 20000, now 100000
    wal_buffers was 8, now 16
    sort_mem was 1024, now 64000
    vacuum_mem was 1024, now 64000
    effective_cache_size was 1000, now 100000
    
    I am in the process of reloading the dB, but obs_v and obs_i contain ~750000 records each.  I'd be happy to play around with the settings if you would like to see the timing results.  I'll also be able to get some explain analyze results tomorrow when finished reloading.  Suggestions as to what values to change first?
    
    There is a 'C' language trigger on the obs_v and obs_i tables which essentially combines the data from the the obs_? tables and updates the catalog table when the obs_? records are updated.
    
    The query is:
    
    UPDATE obs_v
    SET mag = obs_v.imag + zp.zero_v + cg.color_v * (obs_v.imag - i.imag),
        use = true
    FROM color_group AS cg, zero_pair AS zp, obs_i AS i, files AS f
    WHERE  obs_v.star_id = i.star_id
       AND obs_v.file_id = f.file_id
       AND cg.group_id = f.group_id
       AND f.group_id = $group_id
       AND zp.pair_id = f.pair_id
    
    which is called from a perl script (DBD::Pg - which sets $group_id), and the relevant tables are:
    
                           Table "public.obs_v"
     Column  |  Type   |                   Modifiers                    
    ---------+---------+------------------------------------------------
     x       | real    | not null
     y       | real    | not null
     imag    | real    | not null
     smag    | real    | not null
     ra      | real    | not null
     dec     | real    | not null
     obs_id  | integer | not null default nextval('"obs_id_seq"'::text)
     file_id | integer | 
     use     | boolean | default false
     solve   | boolean | default false
     star_id | integer | 
     mag     | real    | 
    Indexes: obs_v_file_id_index btree (file_id),
             obs_v_loc_index btree (ra, "dec"),
             obs_v_obs_id_index btree (obs_id),
             obs_v_star_id_index btree (star_id),
             obs_v_use_index btree (use)
    Foreign Key constraints: obs_v_files_constraint FOREIGN KEY (file_id) REFERENCES files(file_id) ON UPDATE NO ACTION ON DELETE CASCADE
    Triggers: obs_v_trig
    
    with obs_i being identical (inherited from same root table)
    
       Table "public.color_group"
      Column  |  Type   | Modifiers 
    ----------+---------+-----------
     group_id | integer | 
     color_u  | real    | default 0
     color_b  | real    | default 0
     color_v  | real    | default 0
     color_r  | real    | default 0
     color_i  | real    | default 0
    Indexes: color_group_group_id_index btree (group_id)
    Foreign Key constraints: $1 FOREIGN KEY (group_id) REFERENCES groups(group_id) ON UPDATE NO ACTION ON DELETE CASCADE
    
       Table "public.zero_pair"
     Column  |  Type   | Modifiers 
    ---------+---------+-----------
     pair_id | integer | not null
     zero_u  | real    | default 0
     zero_b  | real    | default 0
     zero_v  | real    | default 0
     zero_r  | real    | default 0
     zero_i  | real    | default 0
    Indexes: zero_pair_pkey primary key btree (pair_id),
             zero_pair_pair_id_index btree (pair_id)
    Foreign Key constraints: $1 FOREIGN KEY (pair_id) REFERENCES pairs(pair_id) ON UPDATE NO ACTION ON DELETE CASCADE
    
                                        Table "public.files"
      Column  |           Type           |                       Modifiers                       
    ----------+--------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------
     file_id  | integer                  | not null default nextval('"files_file_id_seq"'::text)
     group_id | integer                  | 
     pair_id  | integer                  | 
     date     | timestamp with time zone | not null
     name     | character varying        | not null
     ra_min   | real                     | default 0
     ra_max   | real                     | default 0
     dec_min  | real                     | default 0
     dec_max  | real                     | default 0
    Indexes: files_pkey primary key btree (file_id),
             files_name_key unique btree (name),
             files_id_index btree (file_id, group_id, pair_id),
             files_range_index btree (ra_min, ra_max, dec_min, dec_max),
             imported__file_id_idex btree (file_id)
    Foreign Key constraints: $1 FOREIGN KEY (group_id) REFERENCES groups(group_id) ON UPDATE NO ACTION ON DELETE CASCADE,
                             $2 FOREIGN KEY (pair_id) REFERENCES pairs(pair_id) ON UPDATE NO ACTION ON DELETE CASCADE
    
                                    Table "public.catalog"
          Column      |       Type       |                    Modifiers                    
    ------------------+------------------+-------------------------------------------------
     star_id          | integer          | not null default nextval('"star_id_seq"'::text)
     loc_count        | integer          | default 0
     ra               | real             | not null
     ra_sum           | double precision | default 0
     ra_sigma         | real             | default 0
     ra_sum_square    | double precision | default 0
     dec              | real             | not null
     dec_sum          | double precision | default 0
     dec_sigma        | real             | default 0
     dec_sum_square   | double precision | default 0
     mag_u_count      | integer          | default 0
     mag_u            | real             | default 99
     mag_u_sum        | double precision | default 0
     mag_u_sigma      | real             | default 0
     mag_u_sum_square | double precision | default 0
     mag_b_count      | integer          | default 0
     mag_b            | real             | default 99
     mag_b_sum        | double precision | default 0
     mag_b_sigma      | real             | default 0
     mag_b_sum_square | double precision | default 0
     mag_v_count      | integer          | default 0
     mag_v            | real             | default 99
     mag_v_sum        | double precision | default 0
     mag_v_sigma      | real             | default 0
     mag_v_sum_square | double precision | default 0
     mag_r_count      | integer          | default 0
     mag_r            | real             | default 99
     mag_r_sum        | double precision | default 0
     mag_r_sigma      | real             | default 0
     mag_r_sum_square | double precision | default 0
     mag_i_count      | integer          | default 0
     mag_i            | real             | default 99
     mag_i_sum        | double precision | default 0
     mag_i_sigma      | real             | default 0
     mag_i_sum_square | double precision | default 0
    Indexes: catalog_pkey primary key btree (star_id),
             catalog_ra_decl_index btree (ra, "dec"),
             catalog_star_id_index btree (star_id)
    
    
    
    -- 
    O_
    
  14. Re: db growing out of proportion

    Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> — 2003-05-31T16:13:12Z

    Robert Creager <Robert_Creager@LogicalChaos.org> writes:
    >> I'm interested to narrow down exactly what was the issue here.
    
    > shared_buffers was 1024, now 8192
    > max_fsm_relations was 1000, now 10000
    > max_fsm_pages was 20000, now 100000
    > wal_buffers was 8, now 16
    > sort_mem was 1024, now 64000
    > vacuum_mem was 1024, now 64000
    > effective_cache_size was 1000, now 100000
    
    > The query is:
    
    > UPDATE obs_v
    > SET mag = obs_v.imag + zp.zero_v + cg.color_v * (obs_v.imag - i.imag),
    >     use = true
    > FROM color_group AS cg, zero_pair AS zp, obs_i AS i, files AS f
    > WHERE  obs_v.star_id = i.star_id
    >    AND obs_v.file_id = f.file_id
    >    AND cg.group_id = f.group_id
    >    AND f.group_id = $group_id
    >    AND zp.pair_id = f.pair_id
    
    Hm.  My best guess is that the increase in sort_mem allowed this query
    to use a more efficient join plan.  Perhaps the planner switched from
    merge to hash join once it thought the hash table would fit in sort_mem;
    or maybe the plan didn't change but the executor was able to keep
    everything in memory instead of using temp files.  The other changes you
    mention seem good as general housekeeping, but I doubt they'd have much
    direct effect on this query's speed.  It'd be interesting to look at
    EXPLAIN ANALYZE results for the same query at several different sort_mem
    values.
    
    			regards, tom lane
    
    
  15. Adjusting fsm values was Re: [BUGS] db growing out of proportion

    Robert Creager <robert_creager@logicalchaos.org> — 2003-06-13T03:49:34Z

    Hey Tom,
    
    Sorry for the long delay.  I'd been having mail trouble, and your and
    postgresql mail servers were bouncing me because Starband (my ISP)
    doesn't setup a full DNS entry for their clients.  I'm now relaying
    through another host.
    
    I'm posting to the performance list, as it seems more appropriate there.
    
    The results were not as clear cut as I would of thought.  If either
    fsm_relations, fsm_pages or sort_mem were dropped to their original
    values, the queries went from 3 hours to not completing 9/15 sets after
    13 hours. When the shared buffers were reverted, the set completed in 12
    hours.
    
    I didn't capture any explains for the problem settings, but will be
    happy to do so if you would like to see some of the results (if they are
    different).  I'm almost caught up with importing new data (too much rain
    around here to take new data), and can explain away this weekend.
    
    Cheers,
    Rob
    
    On Fri, 30 May 2003 22:50:02 -0600
    Robert Creager <Robert_Creager@LogicalChaos.org> said something like:
    
    > On Sat, 31 May 2003 00:11:26 -0400
    > Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> said something like:
    > > 
    > > Cool ... but it's not immediately obvious which of these changes did
    > > the trick for you.  What settings were you at before?  And what's
    > > the details of the problem query?
    > > 
    > > The first three settings you mention all seem like reasonable
    > > choices, but I'd be hesitant to recommend 64M sort_mem for general
    > > use (it won't take very many concurrent sorts to drive you into the
    > > ground...).  So I'm interested to narrow down exactly what was the
    > > issue here.
    > > 
    > > 			regards, tom lane
    > 
    > shared_buffers was 1024, now 8192
    > max_fsm_relations was 1000, now 10000
    > max_fsm_pages was 20000, now 100000
    > wal_buffers was 8, now 16
    > sort_mem was 1024, now 64000
    > vacuum_mem was 1024, now 64000
    > effective_cache_size was 1000, now 100000
    > 
    > I am in the process of reloading the dB, but obs_v and obs_i contain
    > ~750000 records each.  I'd be happy to play around with the settings
    > if you would like to see the timing results.  I'll also be able to get
    > some explain analyze results tomorrow when finished reloading. 
    > Suggestions as to what values to change first?
    > 
    > There is a 'C' language trigger on the obs_v and obs_i tables which
    > essentially combines the data from the the obs_? tables and updates
    > the catalog table when the obs_? records are updated.
    > 
    > The query is:
    > 
    > UPDATE obs_v
    > SET mag = obs_v.imag + zp.zero_v + cg.color_v * (obs_v.imag - i.imag),
    >     use = true
    > FROM color_group AS cg, zero_pair AS zp, obs_i AS i, files AS f
    > WHERE  obs_v.star_id = i.star_id
    >    AND obs_v.file_id = f.file_id
    >    AND cg.group_id = f.group_id
    >    AND f.group_id = $group_id
    >    AND zp.pair_id = f.pair_id
    > 
    > which is called from a perl script (DBD::Pg - which sets $group_id),
    > and the relevant tables are:
    > 
    >                        Table "public.obs_v"
    >  Column  |  Type   |                   Modifiers                    
    > ---------+---------+------------------------------------------------
    >  x       | real    | not null
    >  y       | real    | not null
    >  imag    | real    | not null
    >  smag    | real    | not null
    >  ra      | real    | not null
    >  dec     | real    | not null
    >  obs_id  | integer | not null default nextval('"obs_id_seq"'::text)
    >  file_id | integer | 
    >  use     | boolean | default false
    >  solve   | boolean | default false
    >  star_id | integer | 
    >  mag     | real    | 
    > Indexes: obs_v_file_id_index btree (file_id),
    >          obs_v_loc_index btree (ra, "dec"),
    >          obs_v_obs_id_index btree (obs_id),
    >          obs_v_star_id_index btree (star_id),
    >          obs_v_use_index btree (use)
    > Foreign Key constraints: obs_v_files_constraint FOREIGN KEY (file_id)
    > REFERENCES files(file_id) ON UPDATE NO ACTION ON DELETE CASCADE
    > Triggers: obs_v_trig
    > 
    > with obs_i being identical (inherited from same root table)
    > 
    >    Table "public.color_group"
    >   Column  |  Type   | Modifiers 
    > ----------+---------+-----------
    >  group_id | integer | 
    >  color_u  | real    | default 0
    >  color_b  | real    | default 0
    >  color_v  | real    | default 0
    >  color_r  | real    | default 0
    >  color_i  | real    | default 0
    > Indexes: color_group_group_id_index btree (group_id)
    > Foreign Key constraints: $1 FOREIGN KEY (group_id) REFERENCES
    > groups(group_id) ON UPDATE NO ACTION ON DELETE CASCADE
    > 
    >    Table "public.zero_pair"
    >  Column  |  Type   | Modifiers 
    > ---------+---------+-----------
    >  pair_id | integer | not null
    >  zero_u  | real    | default 0
    >  zero_b  | real    | default 0
    >  zero_v  | real    | default 0
    >  zero_r  | real    | default 0
    >  zero_i  | real    | default 0
    > Indexes: zero_pair_pkey primary key btree (pair_id),
    >          zero_pair_pair_id_index btree (pair_id)
    > Foreign Key constraints: $1 FOREIGN KEY (pair_id) REFERENCES
    > pairs(pair_id) ON UPDATE NO ACTION ON DELETE CASCADE
    > 
    >                                     Table "public.files"
    >   Column  |           Type           |                       Modifiers
    >                         
    > ----------+--------------------------+-------------------------------
    > ------------------------
    >  file_id  | integer                  | not null default
    >  nextval('"files_file_id_seq"'::text) group_id | integer              
    >     | 
    >  pair_id  | integer                  | 
    >  date     | timestamp with time zone | not null
    >  name     | character varying        | not null
    >  ra_min   | real                     | default 0
    >  ra_max   | real                     | default 0
    >  dec_min  | real                     | default 0
    >  dec_max  | real                     | default 0
    > Indexes: files_pkey primary key btree (file_id),
    >          files_name_key unique btree (name),
    >          files_id_index btree (file_id, group_id, pair_id),
    >          files_range_index btree (ra_min, ra_max, dec_min, dec_max),
    >          imported__file_id_idex btree (file_id)
    > Foreign Key constraints: $1 FOREIGN KEY (group_id) REFERENCES
    > groups(group_id) ON UPDATE NO ACTION ON DELETE CASCADE,
    >                          $2 FOREIGN KEY (pair_id) REFERENCES
    >                          pairs(pair_id) ON UPDATE NO ACTION ON DELETE
    >                          CASCADE
    > 
    >                                 Table "public.catalog"
    >       Column      |       Type       |                    Modifiers   
    >                       
    > ------------------+------------------+-------------------------------
    > ------------------
    >  star_id          | integer          | not null default
    >  nextval('"star_id_seq"'::text) loc_count        | integer          |
    >  default 0 ra               | real             | not null
    >  ra_sum           | double precision | default 0
    >  ra_sigma         | real             | default 0
    >  ra_sum_square    | double precision | default 0
    >  dec              | real             | not null
    >  dec_sum          | double precision | default 0
    >  dec_sigma        | real             | default 0
    >  dec_sum_square   | double precision | default 0
    >  mag_u_count      | integer          | default 0
    >  mag_u            | real             | default 99
    >  mag_u_sum        | double precision | default 0
    >  mag_u_sigma      | real             | default 0
    >  mag_u_sum_square | double precision | default 0
    >  mag_b_count      | integer          | default 0
    >  mag_b            | real             | default 99
    >  mag_b_sum        | double precision | default 0
    >  mag_b_sigma      | real             | default 0
    >  mag_b_sum_square | double precision | default 0
    >  mag_v_count      | integer          | default 0
    >  mag_v            | real             | default 99
    >  mag_v_sum        | double precision | default 0
    >  mag_v_sigma      | real             | default 0
    >  mag_v_sum_square | double precision | default 0
    >  mag_r_count      | integer          | default 0
    >  mag_r            | real             | default 99
    >  mag_r_sum        | double precision | default 0
    >  mag_r_sigma      | real             | default 0
    >  mag_r_sum_square | double precision | default 0
    >  mag_i_count      | integer          | default 0
    >  mag_i            | real             | default 99
    >  mag_i_sum        | double precision | default 0
    >  mag_i_sigma      | real             | default 0
    >  mag_i_sum_square | double precision | default 0
    > Indexes: catalog_pkey primary key btree (star_id),
    >          catalog_ra_decl_index btree (ra, "dec"),
    >          catalog_star_id_index btree (star_id)
    > 
    > 
    > 
    > -- 
    > O_
    > 
    
    
    -- 
    O_
    
  16. Re: db growing out of proportion

    Tomas Szepe <szepe@pinerecords.com> — 2003-06-13T05:34:59Z

    > [szepe@pinerecords.com]
    > 
    > > Peter Childs <blue.dragon@blueyonder.co.uk> writes:
    > > > On Fri, 30 May 2003, Tomas Szepe wrote:
    > > >> Trouble is, as the rows in the tables get deleted/inserted/updated
    > > >> (the frequency being a couple thousand rows per minute), the database
    > > >> is growing out of proportion in size.
    > > 
    > > > 	Would more regular vacuum help. I think a vaccum every hour may do 
    > > > the job.
    > > 
    > > Also note that no amount of vacuuming will save you if the FSM is not
    > > large enough to keep track of all the free space.  The default FSM
    > > settings, like all the other default settings in Postgres, are set up
    > > for a small installation.  You'd probably need to raise them by at least
    > > a factor of 10 for this installation.
    > 
    > Thanks, I'll try to tweak those settings and will let the list know how
    > things went.
    
    Well, raising max_fsm_pages to 500000 seems to have solved the problem
    entirely.  My thanks go to everyone who've offered their help.
    
    -- 
    Tomas Szepe <szepe@pinerecords.com>