Thread: Finding out why parallel queries not avoided

Finding out why parallel queries not avoided

From
Didier Carlier
Date:
I’m trying to find out why parallel queries are sometimes not used.

For example, I have 2 tables, calendar (1 row per day, ~3K rows) and measure (~300M rows) which includes a FK to
calendar.

I.e knowing two day numbers, I can find out how many measures there are between these two dates with a
select count(*) from measure m where m.fromdateid >=1462 and m.fromdateid < 1826;
(1462 and 1826 are the calendar ids corresponding to 2015-01-01 and 2015-12-31)

This uses parallel query:
explain select count(*) from measure m where m.fromdateid >=1462 and m.fromdateid < 1826;
                                                 QUERY PLAN
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Finalize Aggregate  (cost=3894860.64..3894860.65 rows=1 width=8)
  ->  Gather  (cost=3894860.61..3894860.62 rows=8 width=8)
        Workers Planned: 8
        ->  Partial Aggregate  (cost=3894860.61..3894860.62 rows=1 width=8)
              ->  Parallel Bitmap Heap Scan on measure m  (cost=11265.96..3881068.52 rows=5516835 width=0)
                    Recheck Cond: ((fromdateid >= 1462) AND (fromdateid < 1826))
                    ->  Bitmap Index Scan on idx_measure_fromdate  (cost=0.00..232.29 rows=44134699 width=0)
                          Index Cond: ((fromdateid >= 1462) AND (fromdateid < 1826))


The “equivalent" query without hard coding the day numbers gives this query plan:

explain select count(*) from calendar c1, calendar c2, measure m where
 c1.stddate='2015-01-01' and c2.stddate='2015-12-31' and m.fromdateid >=c1.calendarid and m.fromdateid < c2.calendarid;
                                                  QUERY PLAN
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Aggregate  (cost=5073362.73..5073362.74 rows=1 width=8)
   ->  Nested Loop  (cost=8718.47..4988195.81 rows=34066770 width=0)
         ->  Index Scan using calendar_stddate_unique on calendar c2  (cost=0.28..2.30 rows=1 width=4)
               Index Cond: (stddate = '2015-12-31 00:00:00+01'::timestamp with time zone)
         ->  Nested Loop  (cost=8718.19..4647525.81 rows=34066770 width=4)
               ->  Index Scan using calendar_stddate_unique on calendar c1  (cost=0.28..2.30 rows=1 width=4)
                     Index Cond: (stddate = '2015-01-01 00:00:00+01'::timestamp with time zone)
               ->  Bitmap Heap Scan on measure m  (cost=8717.91..4306855.81 rows=34066770 width=4)
                     Recheck Cond: ((fromdateid >= c1.calendarid) AND (fromdateid < c2.calendarid))
                     ->  Bitmap Index Scan on idx_measure_fromdate  (cost=0.00..201.22 rows=34072527 width=0)
                           Index Cond: ((fromdateid >= c1.calendarid) AND (fromdateid < c2.calendarid))

Both queries return the same answers but I don't see why the second one doesn't use parallel query.
I've tried a few different ways to express the same thing, e.g subselect, CTE etc in order to try to ease the query
plannerwork but it always avoids the parallel query. 
I also set the parallel_tuple_cost and parallel_setup_cost to 0 without success.

Any idea ? Or is there a way to ask the query planner more details about the decisions it makes ?

Kind regards,
Didier

Re: Finding out why parallel queries not avoided

From
David Rowley
Date:
On 21 July 2018 at 20:15, Didier Carlier <didier.carlier@haulogy.net> wrote:
> explain select count(*) from calendar c1, calendar c2, measure m where
>  c1.stddate='2015-01-01' and c2.stddate='2015-12-31' and m.fromdateid >=c1.calendarid and m.fromdateid <
c2.calendarid;
>                                                   QUERY PLAN
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>  Aggregate  (cost=5073362.73..5073362.74 rows=1 width=8)
>    ->  Nested Loop  (cost=8718.47..4988195.81 rows=34066770 width=0)
>          ->  Index Scan using calendar_stddate_unique on calendar c2  (cost=0.28..2.30 rows=1 width=4)
>                Index Cond: (stddate = '2015-12-31 00:00:00+01'::timestamp with time zone)
>          ->  Nested Loop  (cost=8718.19..4647525.81 rows=34066770 width=4)
>                ->  Index Scan using calendar_stddate_unique on calendar c1  (cost=0.28..2.30 rows=1 width=4)
>                      Index Cond: (stddate = '2015-01-01 00:00:00+01'::timestamp with time zone)
>                ->  Bitmap Heap Scan on measure m  (cost=8717.91..4306855.81 rows=34066770 width=4)
>                      Recheck Cond: ((fromdateid >= c1.calendarid) AND (fromdateid < c2.calendarid))
>                      ->  Bitmap Index Scan on idx_measure_fromdate  (cost=0.00..201.22 rows=34072527 width=0)
>                            Index Cond: ((fromdateid >= c1.calendarid) AND (fromdateid < c2.calendarid))
>
> Both queries return the same answers but I don't see why the second one doesn't use parallel query.

You'd likely be better of writing the query as:

select count(*) from measure where fromdateid >= (select calendarid
from calendar where stddate = '2015-01-01') and fromdateid < (select
calendarid from calendar where stddate = '2015-12-31');

The reason you get the poor nested loop plan is that nested loop is
the only join method that supports non-equijoin.

Unsure why you didn't get a parallel plan. Parallel in pg10 supports a
few more plan shapes than 9.6 did. Unsure what version you're using.


-- 
 David Rowley                   http://www.2ndQuadrant.com/
 PostgreSQL Development, 24x7 Support, Training & Services


Re: Finding out why parallel queries not avoided

From
Didier Carlier
Date:

> On 22 Jul 2018, at 05:45, David Rowley <david.rowley@2ndquadrant.com> wrote:
>
> On 21 July 2018 at 20:15, Didier Carlier <didier.carlier@haulogy.net> wrote:
>> explain select count(*) from calendar c1, calendar c2, measure m where
>> c1.stddate='2015-01-01' and c2.stddate='2015-12-31' and m.fromdateid >=c1.calendarid and m.fromdateid <
c2.calendarid;
>>                                                  QUERY PLAN
>> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> Aggregate  (cost=5073362.73..5073362.74 rows=1 width=8)
>>   ->  Nested Loop  (cost=8718.47..4988195.81 rows=34066770 width=0)
>>         ->  Index Scan using calendar_stddate_unique on calendar c2  (cost=0.28..2.30 rows=1 width=4)
>>               Index Cond: (stddate = '2015-12-31 00:00:00+01'::timestamp with time zone)
>>         ->  Nested Loop  (cost=8718.19..4647525.81 rows=34066770 width=4)
>>               ->  Index Scan using calendar_stddate_unique on calendar c1  (cost=0.28..2.30 rows=1 width=4)
>>                     Index Cond: (stddate = '2015-01-01 00:00:00+01'::timestamp with time zone)
>>               ->  Bitmap Heap Scan on measure m  (cost=8717.91..4306855.81 rows=34066770 width=4)
>>                     Recheck Cond: ((fromdateid >= c1.calendarid) AND (fromdateid < c2.calendarid))
>>                     ->  Bitmap Index Scan on idx_measure_fromdate  (cost=0.00..201.22 rows=34072527 width=0)
>>                           Index Cond: ((fromdateid >= c1.calendarid) AND (fromdateid < c2.calendarid))
>>
>> Both queries return the same answers but I don't see why the second one doesn't use parallel query.
>
> You'd likely be better of writing the query as:
>
> select count(*) from measure where fromdateid >= (select calendarid
> from calendar where stddate = '2015-01-01') and fromdateid < (select
> calendarid from calendar where stddate = '2015-12-31');
>
> The reason you get the poor nested loop plan is that nested loop is
> the only join method that supports non-equijoin.

It doesn’t use a parallel query but It’s faster indeed, (~12 sec vs 9sec), thanks for the info.

>
> Unsure why you didn't get a parallel plan. Parallel in pg10 supports a
> few more plan shapes than 9.6 did. Unsure what version you're using.

It’s on 10.3 which is the latest available package prebuilt for SmartOS