Re: design question: general db performance

Shane,

> Disclaimer:  I am relatively new to RDBMSs, so please do not laugh at me
> too loudly,  you can laugh, just not too loudly and please do not point. :)

Hey, we all started somewhere.  Nobody was born knowing databases.  Except
maybe Neil Conway.

> I am working on an Automated Installer Testing System for Adobe Systems
> and I am doing a DB redesign of the current postgres db:

Cool!    We're going to want to talk to you about a case study later, if you
can get your boss to authorize it ....

> Our db is getting to be a respectable size (about 10GB right now) and is
> growing slower and slower.

Slower and slower?   Hmmm ... what's your VACUUM. ANALYZE & REINDEX schedule?
What PG version?  What are your postgresql.conf settings?   Progressive
performance loss may indicate a problem with one or more of these things ...

> then in my data I would just store 1,2,3 or 4 instead of the whole
> permissions string.
>
> it seems to me that we would save lots of space and over time not see
> the same performance degradation.

Yes, this is a good idea.   Abstracting other repetitive data is good too.
Also keep in mind that the permissions themselves can be represented as octal
numbers instead of strings, which takes less space.

--
-Josh Berkus
 Aglio Database Solutions
 San Francisco