Re: PostgreSQL is extremely slow on Windows - Mailing list pgsql-performance

Hi,

I changed fsync to false. It took 8 minutes to restore the full database.
That is 26 times faster than before. :-/ (aprox. 200 tps)
With background writer it took 12 minutes. :-(

The funny thing is, I had a VMWARE emulation on the same Windows mashine,
running Red Hat, with fsync turned on. It took also 8 minutes to finish.
Probably the Linux code is better + VMWARE optimises (physical) disk
access.(?)

It seems to me, I need 2 types of operating modes:
- For bulk loading (database restore) : fsync=false
- Normal operation fsync=true

Am I right? How can I do it "elegantly"?

I Think, it should be a "performance tuning guide" in the docomentation.
(not just explaning the settings) Playing with the settings could be quite
anoying.

Anyway, thanks for the tips.

Bye,
Vig Sándor



-----Original Message-----
From: Magnus Hagander [mailto:mha@sollentuna.net]
Sent: Tuesday, February 22, 2005 7:15 PM
To: Vig, Sandor (G/FI-2); pgsql-performance@postgresql.org
Subject: RE: [PERFORM] PostgreSQL is extremely slow on Windows



>I've downloaded the latest release (PostgreSQL 8.0) for windows.
>Installation was OK, but I have tried to restore a database.
>It had more than ~100.000 records. Usually I use PostgreSQL
>under Linux, and it used to be done under 10 minutes.
>
>Under W2k und XP it took 3 hours(!) Why is it so slow????
>
>The commands I used:
>
>Under Linux: (duration: 1 minute)
>    pg_dump -D databasename > databasename.db
>
>Under Windows: (duration: 3 - 3.5 hours(!))
>    psql databasename < databasename.db >nul
>
>It seemed to me, that only 20-30 transactions/sec were
>writen to the database.

20-30 transactionsi s about what you'll get on a single disk on Windows
today.
We have a patch in testing that will bring this up to about 80.
You can *never* get above 80 without using write cache, regardless of
your OS, if you have a single disk. You might want to look into wether
write cacheing is enabled on your linux box, and disable it. (unless you
are using RAID) A lot points towards write cache enabled on your system.

If you need the performance that equals the one with write cache on, you
can set fsync=off. But then you will lose the guarantee that your
machine will survive an unclean shutdown or crash. I would strongly
advice against it on a production system - same goes for running with
write cache!

//Magnus

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