Re: Upgrade to dual processor machine?

Henrik

Oops!   Two corrections, below.   Sorry about the typos.

> First off, I'm moving this discussion to the PGSQL-PERFORMANCE list,
> where it belongs.   To subscribe, send the message "subscribe
> pgsql-perform your@email.address" to "majordomo@postgresql.org".

Sorry ... thats "subscribe pgsql-performance your@email.address".

> Then, of course, it becomes an interactive process.  You change the
> settings, re-start the database server, and watch the memory used by
> the postgreSQL processes.   Your goal is to have that memory usage
> hover around 700mb during heavy usage periods (any less, and you are

That's "600mb", not "700mb".

I also just read Tom's response regarding reserving more RAM for kernel
buffering.   This hasn't been my experience, but then I work mostly
with transactional databases (many read-write requests) rather than
read-only databases.

As such, I'd be interested in a test:  Calculate out your PostgreSQL
RAM to total, say, 256mb and run a speed test on the database.   Then
calculate it out to the previous 600mb, and do the same.   I'd like to
know the results.

In fact, e-mail me off list if you want further help -- I'm interested
in the outcome.

-Josh Berkus