Re: pg 8.1.3, AIX, huge box, painfully slow.

Gavin Hamill wrote:
> On Fri, 07 Apr 2006 15:24:18 -0500
> Scott Marlowe <smarlowe@g2switchworks.com> wrote:
>
>>> See reply to Tom Lane :)
>> I didn't see one go by yet...  Could be sitting in the queue.
>
> If it's not arrived by now - EXPLAIN ANALYZE doesn't tell me
> anything :)
>
>> Let us know if changing the fsync setting helps.  Hopefully that's all
>> the problem is.
>
> fsync's already off - yes a bit scary, but our I/O is only about
> 500KB/sec writing.. the whole db fits in RAM / kernel disk cache, and
> I'd rather have performance than security at this exact moment..

>>> Multi-Opteron was the other thing we considered but decided to give
>>> 'Big Iron' UNIX a whirl...
>> It still might be a good choice, if it's a simple misconfiguration
>> issue.
>>
>> But man, those new multiple core opterons can make some impressive
>> machines for very little money.
>
> So I see - we could buy two quad-opterons for the cost of renting this
> pSeries for a month....

I don't know about the pSeries, but I had a client the other week with
the same usage pattern. They made the switch from a quad Xeon to dual
(+dual-core) Opteron and were extremely impressed.

I can probably put you in touch with their sysadmin - contact me
off-list if you'd like that.

--
   Richard Huxton
   Archonet Ltd