I have a query which is running slowly, and the query plan shows an
unexpected sequence scan where I'd have expected the planner to use an index. Setting enable_seqscan=off causes the planner to use the index as expected.
That hashjoin plan doesn't look at all unreasonable to me. The fact that it actually comes out a lot slower than the nestloop with inner indexscan suggests that you must be running with the large table completely cached in RAM. If that's the normal state of affairs for your database, you should consider decreasing the random_page_cost setting so that the planner will plan appropriately.
A very quick test of the settings that Kevin posted produce a much better plan and faster response to that query (at least on my dev machine) I'll read up more on those settings before changing production, but it looks good - thanks very much!
