Re: Are there plans to add data compression feature to postgresql?

Ron Mayer wrote:
> Grant Allen wrote:
>> ...warehouse...DB2...IBM is seeing typical storage savings in the
>> 40-60% range
>
> Sounds about the same as what compressing file systems claim:
>
> http://opensolaris.org/os/community/zfs/whatis/
>  "ZFS provides built-in compression. In addition to
>   reducing space usage by 2-3x, compression also reduces
>   the amount of I/O by 2-3x. For this reason, enabling
>   compression actually makes some workloads go faster.
>
> I do note that Netezza got a lot of PR around their
> compression release; claiming it doubled performance.
> Wonder if they added that at the file system or higher
> in the DB.
>

I just so happen to have access to a Netezza system :-) I'll see if I
can find out.

One other thing I forgot to mention:  Compression by the DB trumps
filesystem compression in one very important area - shared_buffers! (or
buffer_cache, bufferpool or whatever your favourite DB calls its working
memory for caching data).  Because the data stays compressed in the
block/page when cached by the database in one of its buffers, you get
more bang for you memory buck in many circumstances!  Just another angle
to contemplate :-)

Ciao
Fuzzy
:-)

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Dazed and confused about technology for 20 years
http://fuzzydata.wordpress.com/