Re: PostgreSQL Configuration Tool for Dummies

Greg Smith wrote:
> On Tue, 19 Jun 2007, Josh Berkus wrote:
>
>> I don't think the "mostly reads / mostly writes" question covers
>> anything,
>> nor is it likely to produce accurate answers.  Instead, we need to
>> ask the
>> users to characterize what type of application they are running:
>> T1) Please characterize the general type of workload you will be
>> running on
>> this database.  Choose one of the following four...
>
> We've hashed through this area before, but for Lance's benefit I'll
> reiterate my dissenting position on this subject.  If you're building
> a "tool for dummies", my opinion is that you shouldn't ask any of this
> information.  I think there's an enormous benefit to providing
> something that takes basic sizing information and gives conservative
> guidelines based on that--as you say, "safe, middle-of-the-road
> values"--that are still way, way more useful than the default values.
> The risk in trying to make a complicated tool that satisfies all the
> users Josh is aiming his more sophisticated effort at is that you'll
> lose the newbies.
Generally I agree, however, how about a first switch, for beginner /
intermediate / advanced.

The choice you make determines how much detail we ask you about your
setup.  Beginners get two or three simple questions, intermediate a
handful, and advanced gets grilled on everything.  Then, just write the
beginner and maybe intermediate to begin with and ghost out the advanced
until it's ready.