Re: Setting max_fsm_pages - Mailing list pgsql-general

From Jim C. Nasby
Subject Re: Setting max_fsm_pages
Date
Msg-id 20051107193801.GB19551@pervasive.com
Whole thread Raw
In response to Re: Setting max_fsm_pages  ("Carlos Oliva" <carlos@pbsinet.com>)
Responses Re: Setting max_fsm_pages  ("Carlos Oliva" <carlos@pbsinet.com>)
List pgsql-general
On Sun, Nov 06, 2005 at 08:05:29PM -0500, Carlos Oliva wrote:
> Thank you for your response Tom.
>
> Should I set the max_fsm_pages to the "total pages needed" obtained from a
> full vacuum or from a analize vacuum?  When I run a vacuum analyze (vacuumdb
> -z -v), I get a smaller number of pages needed than when I run a full vacuum
> with analyze (vacuumdb -f -z -v)

There shouldn't be any difference because of analyze. But remember that
as the tables change in size (as well as in the number of dead tuples),
total pages needed can change. For example, if you run a vacuum
immediately after a vacuum full on a system with no other activity,
you'll get:

INFO:  free space map: 0 relations, 0 pages stored; 0 total pages needed

That's because there's no dead space to be reclaimed.

Your best bet is to do a vacuum verbose (vacuumdb -v) after the database
has been running for a while using whatever vacuuming scheme you're
going to use (such as pg_autovacuum). That will give you a pretty good
estimate of how many pages you really need. Even that's not 100%
reliable though, so you still need to include extra space as a safety
margin.
--
Jim C. Nasby, Sr. Engineering Consultant      jnasby@pervasive.com
Pervasive Software      http://pervasive.com    work: 512-231-6117
vcard: http://jim.nasby.net/pervasive.vcf       cell: 512-569-9461

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