Re: Trying to minimize the impact of checkpoints (resend) - Mailing list pgsql-general

From Gregory S. Williamson
Subject Re: Trying to minimize the impact of checkpoints (resend)
Date
Msg-id 71E37EF6B7DCC1499CEA0316A256832801057AEE@loki.wc.globexplorer.net
Whole thread Raw
In response to Trying to minimize the impact of checkpoints (resend)  (jao@geophile.com)
List pgsql-general
There is something wonky on this mail list. I did not send this.


-----Original Message-----
From:    Gregory S. Williamson
Sent:    Fri 6/11/2004 2:10 PM
To:    jao@geophile.com
Cc:    pgsql-general@postgresql.org
Subject:    Re: [GENERAL] Trying to minimize the impact of checkpoints (resend)
In-reply-to: <1086983714.40ca0e22a9cb4@geophile.com>
References: <1086983714.40ca0e22a9cb4@geophile.com>
Comments: In-reply-to jao@geophile.commessage dated "Fri, 11 Jun 2004
    15:55:14 -0400"
Date: Fri, 11 Jun 2004 16:42:19 -0400
Message-ID: <18295.1086986539@sss.pgh.pa.us>
From: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
X-Virus-Scanned: by amavisd-new at hub.org
X-Spam-Status: No, hits=0.0 tagged_above=0.0 required=5.0 tests=
X-Spam-Level:
X-Mailing-List: pgsql-general
Precedence: bulk
Sender: pgsql-general-owner@postgresql.org
X-imss-version: 2.5
X-imss-result: Passed
X-imss-scores: Clean:99.90000 C:15 M:2 S:5 R:5
X-imss-settings: Baseline:2 C:2 M:2 S:2 R:2 (0.1500 0.1500)
Return-Path: pgsql-general-owner+M61832@postgresql.org
X-OriginalArrivalTime: 11 Jun 2004 20:51:04.0152 (UTC) FILETIME=[CF961D80:01C44FF5]

jao@geophile.com writes:
> I'm using PostgreSQL 7.3.4 on RH9. Data and logs are on separate
> disks. (These are low-end IDE disks. That part of the problem
> is out of my control.)

> When a checkpoint occurs, all operations slow way, way down.

Not too surprising; you haven't got enough I/O bandwidth.

> Does anyone have any experience in modifying the priority of the
> checkpoint process itself, (re-nicing it)?

That would be a waste of time, because your problem is with I/O usage
not CPU usage, and nice doesn't impact I/O scheduling AFAIK.

You might be able to get somewhere by inserting intrapage delays into
the checkpoint write loop, similar to what's been done to VACUUM since
7.4.  (I have a todo item to do this for CVS tip, in fact.)  You'd not
want this to happen during a shutdown checkpoint, but for ordinary
checkpoints I don't believe there's any problem with spacing out the
writes.

            regards, tom lane

---------------------------(end of broadcast)---------------------------
TIP 1: subscribe and unsubscribe commands go to majordomo@postgresql.org





pgsql-general by date:

Previous
From: Steve Wolfe
Date:
Subject: Re: Opteron scaling with PostgreSQL
Next
From: Greg Stark
Date:
Subject: Re: Opteron scaling with PostgreSQL