Re: Just-in-time Background Writer Patch+Test Results

On Sat, 8 Sep 2007, Tom Lane wrote:

> I've already gotten flak about the current default of 200ms: 
> https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=252129
> I can't imagine that folk with those types of goals will tolerate an 
> un-tunable 10ms cycle.

That's the counter-example for why lowering the default is unacceptable I 
was looking for.  Scratch bgwriter_delay off the list of things that might 
be fixed to a specific value.

Will return to the drawing board to figure out a way to incorporate what 
I've learned about running at 10ms into a tuning plan that still works 
fine at 200ms or higher.  The good news as far as I'm concerned is that I 
haven't had to adjust the code so far, just tweak the existing knobs.

> In fact, given the numbers you show here, I'd say you should leave the 
> default cycle time at 200ms.  The 10ms value is eating way more CPU and 
> producing absolutely no measured benefit relative to 200ms...

My server is a bit underpowered to run at 10ms and gain anything when 
doing a stress test like this; I was content that it didn't degrade 
performance significantly, that was the best I could hope for.  I would 
expect the class of systems that Simon and Heikki are working with could 
show significant benefit from running the BGW that often.

--
* Greg Smith gsmith@gregsmith.com http://www.gregsmith.com Baltimore, MD