stp,
I cannot help you with the first point, but as far as performance
analysis, I share with you what I've been using.
1) pgbench -- which comes with PostgreSQL
2) OSDB (http://osdb.sourceforge.net/)
3) pg_autotune (http://pgfoundry.org/projects/pgautotune/)
4) PQA (http://pgfoundry.org/projects/pqa/)
You did not mention how your database is being used/going to be used. If
its already in production, use PQA, but I personally have not
implemented yet since seemed to be to take a performance hit of 15-25%
when running it. Your mileage may vary.
I use pgbench for quick tests and OSDB for more disk thrash testing.
I am new to this; maybe someone else may be able to speak from more
experience.
Regards.
Steve Poe