Re: synchronous_commit=off doesn't always return immediately - Mailing list pgsql-general

From Alvaro Herrera
Subject Re: synchronous_commit=off doesn't always return immediately
Date
Msg-id 20090727015631.GB10327@alvh.no-ip.org
Whole thread Raw
In response to Re: synchronous_commit=off doesn't always return immediately  (tomrevam <tomer@fabrix.tv>)
Responses Re: synchronous_commit=off doesn't always return immediately
Re: synchronous_commit=off doesn't always return immediately
List pgsql-general
tomrevam wrote:

> The behavior of the system is the same with bg_writer_lru_maxpages =
> 0. Can you explain why transactions are sometimes synchronous even
> with the synchrounous_commit set to off?

Asynchronous transactions must still be logged to the journal from time
to time.  There's a background process called the "wal writer" that's
supposed to do that on the background, but if you have too much WAL
traffic then some transactions may block if there's not enough space in
the in-memory WAL buffer to store their changes, which causes them to
block.  This is why Tom was suggesting you to increase wal_buffers.  Did
you try that?

--
Alvaro Herrera                                http://www.CommandPrompt.com/
PostgreSQL Replication, Consulting, Custom Development, 24x7 support

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