>>>Bruce Momjian said:
[...]
> For example, we can ask them how many rows and tables they will be
> changing, on average, between VACUUM runs. That will allow us set the
> FSM params. We can ask them about using 25% of their RAM for shared
> buffers. If they have other major apps running on the server or have
> small tables, we can make no changes. We can basically ask them
> questions and use that info to set values.
Bruce, this is an very good idea and such tool would simplify setup for the
me-too type of DBA - we should definitely try to attract them.
However, how could one possibly answer the above question, if they setup their
database for the first time?
What is more, these settings are on a per-installation, not per-database -
which means, that if you have several small, but active databases and one
large database the requirements will be very different.
Nobody likes answering such questions when installing new software. You might
enjoy it the first few times, but then learn the 'answers' and don't even
think what the question is. (we all know the answer :)
Perhaps indeed a better idea is to have PostgreSQL itself collect usage
statistics, and from time to time print 'suggestions' to the log file (best in
my opinion), or have these available via some query. These suggestions should
best reflect the of course require minimal intervention to the database
system, such as restart etc.
Daniel
