Re: Load problems...

> > Does postgresql have any problems managing load? I'm running a medium
> > sized (30k customers) ISP off a postgresql database but it can't seem to
> > manage very well with the dozen or so requests per second it receives.
> > The machine we are handling is plenty powerful enough for a database like
> > this (a dual 1ghz p3 machine with 1gb of ram) but for some reason it
> > never runs quite perfectly. 7.1.3 would overload the system rapidly and
> > slow to a crawl, so we installed 7.2b4 only to find it runs like a dream
> > (less that 10% cpu usage most of the time) but eventually fails to fork
> > and crashes and burns, at which point i have to restart it. Could anyone
> > shed any light on a possible solution to these problems?
>
> We're probably going to want to look for some more information.  What does
> the log before failure look like?  Are there any warning signs there
> (messages about running out of file descriptors, etc)?  What do you have
> the memory settings (shared buffers, sort memory, etc) and max connections
> set to?

sort_mem = 1024
shared_buffers = 2048 (tried higher, but didnt' seem to improve anything)
max_connections = 300

error message just comes out of the blue, the database is chugging along
happily and then suddenly[4059]   DEBUG:  connection startup failed (fork
failure): Resource temporarily unavailable
[4059]   DEBUG:  connection startup failed (fork failure): Resource
temporarily unavailable
[4059]   DEBUG:  could not launch checkpoint process (fork failure): Resource
temporarily unavailable
[4059]   DEBUG:  connection startup failed (fork failure): Resource
temporarily unavailable
[4059]   DEBUG:  connection startup failed (fork failure): Resource
temporarily unavailable

etc etc etc

the database is still responsive up till this point, so i'm assuming there
are limitations somewhere that i'm not aware of...