Re: Performance question about using autosave=always and cleanupSavepoints=true - Mailing list pgsql-general

From Dave Cramer
Subject Re: Performance question about using autosave=always and cleanupSavepoints=true
Date
Msg-id CADK3HHL7T20ZaG7pezmW+rawYxQX9D_aBJpGLEqpbBx0tEB5vQ@mail.gmail.com
Whole thread Raw
In response to Performance question about using autosave=always and cleanupSavepoints=true  (Joel Rabinovitch <Joel.Rabinovitch@tecsys.com>)
List pgsql-general


On Tue, 16 Nov 2021 at 11:09, Joel Rabinovitch <Joel.Rabinovitch@tecsys.com> wrote:

Hi,

 

Currently, our application supports SQL Server databases and Oracle schemas. We are updating our application to support PostgreSQL schemas. We are using version 13.4 of PostgreSQL.

 

Our application is written in Java and connects to PostgreSQL schemas using JDBC.

 

In our framework, we have logic that attempts to retry an SQL statement when a row is locked. It does this up to 999 times before it gives up.

 

When this logic is connected using PostgreSQL schemas, we receive error messages similar to the ones below:

 

org.postgresql.util.PSQLException: ERROR: could not obtain lock on row in relation "my_table"

 

org.postgresql.util.PSQLException: ERROR: current transaction is aborted, commands ignored until end of transaction block

 

A Google search led to the following StackOverflow post:

 

hxxps://stackoverflow.com/questions/10399727/psqlexception-current-transaction-is-aborted-commands-ignored-until-end-of-tra (Replace hxxps by https to access it).

 

which indicates that PostgreSQL refuses to execute valid SQL statements on the same connection after an invalid SQL statement is executed.

 

To get around this, we have added the following arguments to the JDBC connection string:

 

autosave=always&cleanupSavepoints=true

 

This resolves the problem, but the concern we are having is in terms of performance.

 

Based on the following link:


hxxps://www.cybertec-postgresql.com/en/subtransactions-and-performance-in-postgresql/
(Replace hxxps by https to access it), it indicates that using this flag can have a serious impact on performance. However, it doesn’t really provide an alternative way to get around it.

 

In terms of real-world experience, what are the disadvantages of using the autosave and cleanupSavepoints arguments?

 

Would it be better to manually set the savepoint in our application code and then rollback if there is an error. This would probably have to be done for each attempt we try to lock a record, so I am not sure if there is any advantage of doing this.

 

Adding the autosave and cleanupSavepoints is a workaround that allows you to use your current code without changes.  It does come with a performance penalty as you have discovered. I'm afraid the only way to really address the performance is to deal with the first problem correctly by retrying transactions when they fail instead of using savepoints.

Regards,
Dave

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