Re: Database storage bloat

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Did you run vacuum full after your import ?

On Thursday 08 April 2004 02:15 am, Tony Reina wrote:
> I'm developing a database for scientific recordings. These recordings
> are traditionally saved as binary flat files for simplicity and
> compact storage. Although I think ultimately having a database is
> better than 1,000s of flat files in terms of data access, I've found
> that the database (or at least my design) is pretty wasteful on
> storage space compared with the binary flat files.
>
> In particular, I tried importing all of the data from a binary flat
> file that is 1.35 MB into a PostgreSQL database (a very small test
> file; average production file is probably more like 100 MB). The
> database directory ballooned from 4.1 MB to 92 MB (a bloat of 65X the
> original storage of the binary flat file).
>
> Now I know that table design and normalizing is important. As far as
> my partner and I can tell, we've made good use of normalizing (no
> redundancy), we've set field sizes to their theoretical skinniness,
> and we've made use of foreign keys and views. I'm also aware that
> indicies/keys and other database internals will necessarily make the
> DBMS solution bloated in terms of storage space. However, a 65X bloat
> in space seems excessive.
>
> Has anyone run across similar storage concerns? I'd be interested in
> knowing if I just have really poorly designed tables, or if something
> else is going on here. I figure a bloat of 3-4X would be permissible
> (and possibly expected). But this bloat just seems too much.
>
> Thanks.
> -Tony
>
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