Hi, We implemented an autocompletion feature (case and accent insensitive) using PostgreSQL full text search. The query fetches patient ids matching the full text query that belong to a given patient base (rows contain a pg_array with patient_base_ids). Our table grew over time (6.2 million rows now) and the query got slower. We are wondering if we have hit the limit or if there is still room for performance improvement with better indexing or data partitioning for instance. Here is a link to the "explain (analyze, buffers)" results from such a query run on one of our servers : http://explain.depesz.com/s/a5Q9 Running analyze on the table doesn't change the results and the table is autovacuumed (last one was 2015-01-08 22:18).
You will find below additional information to bring context to my question. Thank you in advance for your help. Here is the schema of the table : CREATE TABLE patients ( id integer NOT NULL, first_name character varying(255), last_name character varying(255), regular_doctor_name character varying(255), regular_doctor_city character varying(255), email character varying(255), phone_number character varying(255), secondary_phone_number character varying(255), gender boolean, birthdate date, zipcode character varying(255), city character varying(255), created_at timestamp without time zone, updated_at timestamp without time zone, imported_at timestamp without time zone, import_error text, import_identifier character varying(255), address character varying(255), deleted_at timestamp without time zone, account_id integer, main boolean DEFAULT false NOT NULL, insurance_type character varying(255), patient_base_ids_cache integer[] DEFAULT '{}'::integer[], crucial_info character varying(255), referrer character varying(255), occupation character varying(255), custom_fields_values hstore DEFAULT ''::hstore NOT NULL, bounced_at timestamp without time zone, merged_at timestamp without time zone, maiden_name character varying(255) ); Here is the dictionary definition we used for full text search : CREATE TEXT SEARCH CONFIGURATION custom_name_search ( PARSER = pg_catalog."default" ); ALTER TEXT SEARCH CONFIGURATION custom_name_search ADD MAPPING FOR asciiword WITH simple; ALTER TEXT SEARCH CONFIGURATION custom_name_search ADD MAPPING FOR word WITH unaccent, simple; ALTER TEXT SEARCH CONFIGURATION custom_name_search ADD MAPPING FOR numword WITH simple; ALTER TEXT SEARCH CONFIGURATION custom_name_search ADD MAPPING FOR email WITH simple; ALTER TEXT SEARCH CONFIGURATION custom_name_search ADD MAPPING FOR url WITH simple; ALTER TEXT SEARCH CONFIGURATION custom_name_search ADD MAPPING FOR host WITH simple; ALTER TEXT SEARCH CONFIGURATION custom_name_search ADD MAPPING FOR sfloat WITH simple; ALTER TEXT SEARCH CONFIGURATION custom_name_search ADD MAPPING FOR version WITH simple; ALTER TEXT SEARCH CONFIGURATION custom_name_search ADD MAPPING FOR hword_numpart WITH simple; ALTER TEXT SEARCH CONFIGURATION custom_name_search ADD MAPPING FOR hword_part WITH unaccent, simple; ALTER TEXT SEARCH CONFIGURATION custom_name_search ADD MAPPING FOR hword_asciipart WITH simple; ALTER TEXT SEARCH CONFIGURATION custom_name_search ADD MAPPING FOR numhword WITH simple; ALTER TEXT SEARCH CONFIGURATION custom_name_search ADD MAPPING FOR asciihword WITH simple; ALTER TEXT SEARCH CONFIGURATION custom_name_search ADD MAPPING FOR hword WITH unaccent, simple; ALTER TEXT SEARCH CONFIGURATION custom_name_search ADD MAPPING FOR url_path WITH simple; ALTER TEXT SEARCH CONFIGURATION custom_name_search ADD MAPPING FOR file WITH simple; ALTER TEXT SEARCH CONFIGURATION custom_name_search ADD MAPPING FOR "float" WITH simple; ALTER TEXT SEARCH CONFIGURATION custom_name_search ADD MAPPING FOR "int" WITH simple; ALTER TEXT SEARCH CONFIGURATION custom_name_search ADD MAPPING FOR uint WITH simple; Here are the indexes on the patients table : CREATE INDEX index_patients_on_account_id ON patients USING btree (account_id); CREATE INDEX index_patients_on_import_identifier ON patients USING btree (import_identifier); CREATE INDEX index_patients_on_patient_base_ids_cache ON patients USING gin (patient_base_ids_cache); CREATE INDEX index_patients_on_phone_number ON patients USING btree (phone_number); CREATE INDEX patients_clean_secondary_phone_number_index ON patients USING btree (replace((secondary_phone_number)::text, ' '::text, ''::text)); CREATE INDEX tsvector_on_patients ON patients USING gin (to_tsvector('custom_name_search'::regconfig, (((COALESCE(last_name, ''::character varying))::text || ' '::text) || (COALESCE(first_name, ''::character varying))::text))); CREATE INDEX tsvector_on_patients_and_patient_base_ids_cache ON patients USING gin (to_tsvector('custom_name_search'::regconfig, (((COALESCE(last_name, ''::character varying))::text || ' '::text) || (COALESCE(first_name, ''::character varying))::text)), patient_base_ids_cache); CREATE INDEX tsvector_on_patients_first_name ON patients USING gin (to_tsvector('custom_name_search'::regconfig, (COALESCE(first_name, ''::character varying))::text)); CREATE INDEX tsvector_on_patients_first_name_and_patient_base_ids_cache ON patients USING gin (to_tsvector('custom_name_search'::regconfig, (COALESCE(first_name, ''::character varying))::text), patient_base_ids_cache); CREATE INDEX tsvector_on_patients_last_name_and_patient_base_ids_cache ON patients USING gin (to_tsvector('custom_name_search'::regconfig, (COALESCE(last_name, ''::character varying))::text), patient_base_ids_cache); SELECT COUNT(id) FROM patients; count --------- 6219569 (1 row) SELECT version(); version ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ PostgreSQL 9.3.5 on x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu, compiled by gcc (Ubuntu/Linaro 4.6.3-1ubuntu5) 4.6.3, 64-bit (1 row) => SELECT name, current_setting(name), source -> FROM pg_settings -> WHERE source NOT IN ('default', 'override'); name | current_setting | source --------------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+---------------------- application_name | psql | client archive_command | test -f /etc/postgresql/wal-e.d/ARCHIVING_OFF || envdir /etc/postgresql/wal-e.d/env wal-e wal-push %p | configuration file archive_mode | on | configuration file archive_timeout | 1min | configuration file bytea_output | escape | user checkpoint_completion_target | 0.7 | configuration file checkpoint_segments | 40 | configuration file checkpoint_timeout | 10min | configuration file client_encoding | UTF8 | client client_min_messages | notice | configuration file cpu_index_tuple_cost | 0.001 | configuration file cpu_operator_cost | 0.0005 | configuration file cpu_tuple_cost | 0.003 | configuration file DateStyle | ISO, MDY | configuration file default_text_search_config | pg_catalog.english | configuration file effective_cache_size | 10800000kB | configuration file hot_standby | on | configuration file hot_standby_feedback | on | configuration file lc_messages | en_US.UTF-8 | configuration file lc_monetary | en_US.UTF-8 | configuration file lc_numeric | en_US.UTF-8 | configuration file lc_time | en_US.UTF-8 | configuration file listen_addresses | * | configuration file local_preload_libraries | pgextwlist | configuration file log_checkpoints | on | configuration file log_connections | on | configuration file log_destination | stderr | configuration file log_line_prefix | %m %p %u [PINK] | configuration file log_lock_waits | on | configuration file log_min_duration_statement | 2s | configuration file log_min_messages | notice | configuration file log_rotation_age | 1d | configuration file log_rotation_size | 100MB | configuration file log_statement | ddl | configuration file log_temp_files | 10MB | configuration file log_timezone | UTC | configuration file log_truncate_on_rotation | off | configuration file logfebe.identity | c671acf1-c82e-4c2d-a3b3-f815580b6db5 | configuration file logfebe.unix_socket | /tmp/pg_logplexcollector/pg_logplexcollector.sock | configuration file logging_collector | on | configuration file maintenance_work_mem | 1700MB | configuration file max_connections | 500 | configuration file max_prepared_transactions | 0 | configuration file max_stack_depth | 2MB | environment variable max_standby_archive_delay | -1 | configuration file max_standby_streaming_delay | -1 | configuration file max_wal_senders | 20 | configuration file port | 5432 | configuration file random_page_cost | 2 | configuration file shared_buffers | 2929MB | configuration file ssl | on | configuration file ssl_renegotiation_limit | 0 | configuration file superuser_reserved_connections | 3 | configuration file synchronous_commit | local | configuration file synchronous_standby_names | follower | configuration file temp_tablespaces | ephemeral | database TimeZone | UTC | configuration file track_io_timing | on | configuration file wal_keep_segments | 61 | configuration file wal_level | hot_standby | configuration file work_mem | 100MB | configuration file (61 rows)