Ma Sivakumar wrote:
There can be a stronger and more prominent hint / recommendation in postgresql.conf file, in install README, Resource Consumption section of manual (http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.4/interactive/runtime-config-resource.html) and other appropriate places
What you might not be aware of is that most of the text you quoted was just added to the PostgreSQL documentation in the last couple of months. That already represents a good step forward from earlier versions; until quite recently http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.2/interactive/runtime-config-resource.html was how that looked even for 8.3 and 8.4. I'm happy that we've already made a big step forward in helping new users here in that update. At least now DBAs used to other systems who go looking for the "how do I set the size of the cache?" knob will stumble on reasonable advice in the manual, which was not the case before. So I already expect this situation to be much better than it has ever been.
Can a final "We recommend that you to set shared_buffers to 25% of system memory you can allocate for PostgreSQL" be included.
If only it were that easy. 25%, but only on a dedicated server, don't go above 8GB, limit to much less than that on Windows, and be extremely careful if you're writing heavily lest large checkpoints squash you. Giving simple advice that people might follow without thinking about actually has some worst-case downsides that are worse than not tuning the server at all.
This makes Increasing work_mem is a complex calculation for a new user trying out PostgreSQL.
Increasing work_mem is a complex calculation for everyone, not just new users. If it were easy for anyone, we'd just bottle whatever experts do into the software directly. I tried doing a round of that with pgtune, and it's still not quite right yet even after surveying everyone who had an opinion on the subject.
-- Greg Smith 2ndQuadrant US Baltimore, MD PostgreSQL Training, Services and Support g...@2ndquadrant.com www.2ndQuadrant.us -- Sent via pgsql-general mailing list (pgsql-general@postgresql.org) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-general
