Using segmapsize will increase the memory available for doing file system cache and ufs:freebehind=0 helps in caching bigger files in memory.

Its worth a try if you are using default UFS (without forcedirectio mount 
option).

In your cache it seems the writes are having the problems

Typically single disk (with cache disabled) should not be stressed in excess of 100 iops per sec however your app is doing 3X that which is too much for the internal disk. If it is doing sequential writes then UFS (on buffered file system) should be coalescing the writes.. If its random, you just need more spindles. (Using segmapsize and freebehind might make a difference)

If you can't afford more spindles then you can take a "RISK" by turning on your write cache on the disk using "format -e" -> cache -> write_cache -> enable which will improve that number quite a bit. But then make sure the server has UPS attached to it.


-Jignesh



Junaili Lie wrote:
Hi all,
I am still encountering this issue.
I am doing further troubleshooting.
Here is what I found:
When I do: dtrace -s /usr/demo/dtrace/whoio.d
I found that there's one process that is doing majority of i/o, but that process is not listed on pg_stat_activity.
I am also seeing more of this type of query being slow:
EXECUTE <unnamed>  [PREPARE: ...
I am also seeing some article recommending adding some entries on /etc/system:
segmapsize=2684354560 set ufs:freebehind=0
I haven't tried this, I am wondering if this will help.

Also, here is the output of iostat -xcznmP 1 at approx time during the i/o spike:
                    extended device statistics
    r/s    w/s   kr/s   kw/s wait actv wsvc_t asvc_t  %w  %b device
    4.0  213.0   32.0 2089.9  0.0 17.0    0.0   78.5   0  61 c1t0d0s6 (/usr)
     cpu
 us sy wt id
 54  6  0 40
                    extended device statistics
    r/s    w/s   kr/s   kw/s wait actv wsvc_t asvc_t  %w  %b device
    0.0    0.0    0.0    0.0  0.0  0.9    0.0    0.0   0  90 c1t0d0s1 (/var)
    2.0  335.0   16.0 3341.6  0.2 73.3    0.6  217.4   4 100 c1t0d0s6 (/usr)
     cpu
 us sy wt id
 30  4  0 66
                    extended device statistics
    r/s    w/s   kr/s   kw/s wait actv wsvc_t asvc_t  %w  %b device
    0.0    1.0    0.0    4.0  0.0  0.1    0.0  102.0   0  10 c1t0d0s1 (/var)
1.0 267.0 8.0 2729.1 0.0 117.8 0.0 439.5 0 100 c1t0d0s6 (/usr)
     cpu
 us sy wt id
 28  8  0 64
                    extended device statistics
    r/s    w/s   kr/s   kw/s wait actv wsvc_t asvc_t  %w  %b device
    1.0  270.0    8.0 2589.0  0.0 62.0    0.0  228.7   0 100 c1t0d0s6 (/usr)
     cpu
 us sy wt id
 26  2  0 72
                    extended device statistics
    r/s    w/s   kr/s   kw/s wait actv wsvc_t asvc_t  %w  %b device
    2.0  269.0   16.0 2971.5  0.0 66.6    0.0  245.7   0 100 c1t0d0s6 (/usr)
     cpu
 us sy wt id
  8  7  0 86
                    extended device statistics
    r/s    w/s   kr/s   kw/s wait actv wsvc_t asvc_t  %w  %b device
1.0 268.0 8.0 2343.5 0.0 110.3 0.0 410.2 0 100 c1t0d0s6 (/usr)
     cpu
 us sy wt id
  4  4  0 92
                    extended device statistics
    r/s    w/s   kr/s   kw/s wait actv wsvc_t asvc_t  %w  %b device
    0.0  260.0    0.0 2494.5  0.0 63.5    0.0  244.2   0 100 c1t0d0s6 (/usr)
     cpu
 us sy wt id
 24  3  0 74
                    extended device statistics
    r/s    w/s   kr/s   kw/s wait actv wsvc_t asvc_t  %w  %b device
1.0 286.0 8.0 2519.1 35.4 196.5 123.3 684.7 49 100 c1t0d0s6 (/usr)
     cpu
 us sy wt id
 65  4  0 30
                    extended device statistics
    r/s    w/s   kr/s   kw/s wait actv wsvc_t asvc_t  %w  %b device
2.0 316.0 16.0 2913.8 0.0 117.2 0.0 368.7 0 100 c1t0d0s6 (/usr)
     cpu
 us sy wt id
 84  7  0  9
                    extended device statistics
    r/s    w/s   kr/s   kw/s wait actv wsvc_t asvc_t  %w  %b device
    5.0  263.0   40.0 2406.1  0.0 55.8    0.0  208.1   0 100 c1t0d0s6 (/usr)
     cpu
 us sy wt id
 77  4  0 20
                    extended device statistics
    r/s    w/s   kr/s   kw/s wait actv wsvc_t asvc_t  %w  %b device
    4.0  286.0   32.0 2750.6  0.0 75.0    0.0  258.5   0 100 c1t0d0s6 (/usr)
     cpu
 us sy wt id
 21  3  0 77
                    extended device statistics
    r/s    w/s   kr/s   kw/s wait actv wsvc_t asvc_t  %w  %b device
    2.0  273.0   16.0 2516.4  0.0 90.8    0.0  330.0   0 100 c1t0d0s6 (/usr)
     cpu
 us sy wt id
 15  6  0 78
                    extended device statistics
    r/s    w/s   kr/s   kw/s wait actv wsvc_t asvc_t  %w  %b device
    2.0  280.0   16.0 2711.6  0.0 65.6    0.0  232.6   0 100 c1t0d0s6 (/usr)
     cpu
 us sy wt id
  6  3  0 92
                    extended device statistics
    r/s    w/s   kr/s   kw/s wait actv wsvc_t asvc_t  %w  %b device
1.0 308.0 8.0 2661.5 61.0 220.2 197.4 712.7 67 100 c1t0d0s6 (/usr)
     cpu
 us sy wt id
  7  4  0 90
                    extended device statistics
    r/s    w/s   kr/s   kw/s wait actv wsvc_t asvc_t  %w  %b device
1.0 268.0 8.0 2839.9 0.0 97.1 0.0 360.9 0 100 c1t0d0s6 (/usr)
     cpu
 us sy wt id
 11 10  0 80
                    extended device statistics
    r/s    w/s   kr/s   kw/s wait actv wsvc_t asvc_t  %w  %b device
0.0 309.0 0.0 3333.5 175.2 208.9 566.9 676.2 81 99 c1t0d0s6 (/usr)
     cpu
 us sy wt id
  0  0  0 100
                    extended device statistics
    r/s    w/s   kr/s   kw/s wait actv wsvc_t asvc_t  %w  %b device
0.0 330.0 0.0 2704.0 145.6 256.0 441.1 775.7 100 100 c1t0d0s6 (/usr)
     cpu
 us sy wt id
  4  2  0 94
                    extended device statistics
    r/s    w/s   kr/s   kw/s wait actv wsvc_t asvc_t  %w  %b device
0.0 311.0 0.0 2543.9 151.0 256.0 485.6 823.2 100 100 c1t0d0s6 (/usr)
     cpu
 us sy wt id
  2  0  0 98
                    extended device statistics
    r/s    w/s   kr/s   kw/s wait actv wsvc_t asvc_t  %w  %b device
0.0 319.0 0.0 2576.0 147.4 256.0 462.0 802.5 100 100 c1t0d0s6 (/usr)
     cpu
 us sy wt id
  0  1  0 98
                    extended device statistics
    r/s    w/s   kr/s   kw/s wait actv wsvc_t asvc_t  %w  %b device
    0.0    0.0    0.0    0.0  0.0  0.2    0.0    0.0   2  13 c1t0d0s1 (/var)
0.0 366.0 0.0 3088.0 124.4 255.8 339.9 698.8 100 100 c1t0d0s6 (/usr)
     cpu
 us sy wt id
  6  5  0 90
                    extended device statistics
    r/s    w/s   kr/s   kw/s wait actv wsvc_t asvc_t  %w  %b device
    0.0    2.0    0.0   16.0  0.0  1.1    0.0  533.2   0  54 c1t0d0s1 (/var)
1.0 282.0 8.0 2849.0 1.5 129.2 5.2 456.5 10 100 c1t0d0s6 (/usr)

Thank you in advance for your help!

Jun

On 8/30/06, *Junaili Lie* <[EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>> wrote:

    I have tried this to no avail.
    I have also tried changing the bg_writer_delay parameter to 10. The
    spike in i/o still occurs although not in a consistent basis and it
    is only happening for a few seconds.

On 8/30/06, *Jignesh K. Shah* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]
    <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote:

        The bgwriter parameters changed in 8.1

        Try

        bgwriter_lru_maxpages=0
        bgwriter_lru_percent=0

        to turn off bgwriter and see if there is any change.

        -Jignesh


        Junaili Lie wrote:
        >  Hi Jignesh,
        >  Thank you for my reply.
        >  I have the setting just like what you described:
        >
        >  wal_sync_method = fsync
        >  wal_buffers = 128
        >  checkpoint_segments = 128
        >  bgwriter_all_percent = 0
        >  bgwriter_maxpages = 0
        >
        >
        >  I ran the dtrace script and found the following:
        >  During the i/o busy time, there are postgres processes that
        has very
        >  high BYTES count. During that non i/o busy time, this same process
        >  doesn't do a lot of i/o activity. I checked the
        pg_stat_activity but
        >  couldn't found this process. Doing ps revealed that this
        process is
        >  started at the same time since the postgres started, which
        leads me to
        >  believe that it maybe background writer or some other internal
        process.
        >  This process are not autovacuum because it doesn't disappear
        when I
        >  tried turning autovacuum off.
        >  Except for the ones mentioned above, I didn't modify the other
        >  background setting:
        >  MONSOON=# show bgwriter_delay ;
        >  bgwriter_delay
        >  ----------------
        >  200
        >  (1 row)
        >
        >  MONSOON=# show bgwriter_lru_maxpages ;  bgwriter_lru_maxpages
        >  -----------------------
        >  5
        >  (1 row)
        >
        >  MONSOON=# show bgwriter_lru_percent ;
        >  bgwriter_lru_percent
        >  ----------------------
        >  1
        >  (1 row)
        >
        >  This i/o spike only happens at minute 1 and minute 6 (ie.
        10.51, 10.56 )
        >  . If I do select * from pg_stat_activity during this time, I
        will see a
        >  lot of write queries waiting to be processed. After a few seconds,
        >  everything seems to be gone. All writes that are not happening
        at the
        >  time of this i/o jump are being processed very fast, thus do
        not show on
        >  pg_stat_activity.
        >
        >  Thanks in advance for the reply,
        >  Best,
        >
        >  J
        >
        >  On 8/29/06, *Jignesh K. Shah* < [EMAIL PROTECTED]
        <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
        >  <mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>>> wrote:
        >
        >     Also to answer your real question:
        >
        >     DTrace On Solaris 10:
        >
        >     # dtrace -s /usr/demo/dtrace/whoio.d
        >
        >     It will tell you the pids doing the io activity and  on
        which devices.
        >     There are more scripts in that directory like iosnoop.d,
        iotime.d
        >     and others which also will give
        >     other details like file accessed, time it took for the io etc.
        >
        >     Hope this helps.
        >
        >     Regards,
        >     Jignesh
        >
        >
        >     Junaili Lie wrote:
        >      > Hi everyone,
        >      > We have a postgresql 8.1 installed on Solaris 10. It is
        running fine.
        >      > However, for the past couple days, we have seen the i/o
        reports
        >      > indicating that the i/o is busy most of the time. Before
        this, we
        >     only
        >      > saw i/o being busy occasionally (very rare). So far,
        there has
        >     been no
        >      > performance complaints by customers, and the slow query
        reports
        >     doesn't
        >      > indicate anything out of the ordinary.
        >      > There's no code changes on the applications layer and no
        database
        >      > configuration changes.
        >      > I am wondering if there's a tool out there on Solaris to
        tell which
        >      > process is doing most of the i/o activity?
        >      > Thank you in advance.
        >      >
        >      > J
        >      >
        >
        >




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