Re: index file bloating still in 7.4 ? - Mailing list pgsql-performance

From Tom Lane
Subject Re: index file bloating still in 7.4 ?
Date
Msg-id 15968.1066686172@sss.pgh.pa.us
Whole thread Raw
In response to Re: index file bloating still in 7.4 ?  (Seum-Lim Gan <slgan@lucent.com>)
Responses Re: index file bloating still in 7.4 ?
List pgsql-performance
Seum-Lim Gan <slgan@lucent.com> writes:
> [ successive outputs from VACUUM ANALYZE ]

FWIW, I don't think your problem is really index bloat at all, it's
more like too-many-dead-rows bloat.  Note that the number of "dead row
versions" is climbing steadily from run to run:

> DETAIL:  101802 dead row versions cannot be removed yet.

> DETAIL:  110900 dead row versions cannot be removed yet.

> DETAIL:  753064 dead row versions cannot be removed yet.

> DETAIL:  765328 dead row versions cannot be removed yet.

It's hardly the index's fault that it's growing, when it has to keep
track of an ever-increasing number of rows.

The real question is what you're doing that requires the system to keep
hold of these dead rows instead of recycling them.  I suspect you have
a client process somewhere that is holding an open transaction for a
long time ... probably not doing anything, just sitting there with an
unclosed BEGIN ...

            regards, tom lane

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