Hi, I created an index on a 11devel base while sampling pg_stat_activity with a little tool. Tool catches a line if state = active. Collected rows are aggregated and sorted by activity percentage.
Test environment : select version(); version ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PostgreSQL 11devel (Debian 11~~devel~20180227.2330-1~420.git51057fe.pgdg+1) on x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, compiled by gcc (Debian 7.3.0-5) 7.3.0, 64-bit (1 ligne) Temps : 0,762 ms create table t1(c1 bigint, c2 double precision, c3 text); CREATE TABLE insert into t1 select generate_series(1,100000000,1), random(), md5(random()::text) ; INSERT 0 100000000 With a select (select max(c1) from t1 group by c2;) I have this kind of output : ./t -d 20 -o "pid, backend_type, query, wait_event_type, wait_event" traqueur 2.04.00 - performance tool for PostgreSQL 9.3 => 11 INFORMATION, no connection parameters provided, connecting to traqueur database ... INFORMATION, connected to traqueur database INFORMATION, PostgreSQL version : 110000 INFORMATION, sql preparation ... INFORMATION, sql execution ... busy_pc | distinct_exe | pid | backend_type | query | wait_event_type | wait_event ---------+--------------+-------+-----------------+-------------------------------------+-----------------+-------------- 76 | 1 / 151 | 10065 | parallel worker | select max(c1) from t1 group by c2; | IO | DataFileRead 73 | 1 / 146 | 8262 | client backend | select max(c1) from t1 group by c2; | IO | DataFileRead 72 | 1 / 144 | 10066 | parallel worker | select max(c1) from t1 group by c2; | IO | DataFileRead 26 | 1 / 53 | 10066 | parallel worker | select max(c1) from t1 group by c2; | | 26 | 1 / 51 | 8262 | client backend | select max(c1) from t1 group by c2; | | 24 | 1 / 47 | 10065 | parallel worker | select max(c1) from t1 group by c2; | | 2 | 1 / 3 | 10066 | parallel worker | select max(c1) from t1 group by c2; | IO | BufFileWrite 2 | 1 / 3 | 8262 | client backend | select max(c1) from t1 group by c2; | IO | BufFileWrite 1 | 1 / 2 | 10065 | parallel worker | select max(c1) from t1 group by c2; | IO | BufFileWrite With an index creation (create index t1_i1 on t1(c1, c2);) I have this kind of output : ./t -d 20 -o "pid, backend_type, query, wait_event_type, wait_event" traqueur 2.04.00 - performance tool for PostgreSQL 9.3 => 11 INFORMATION, no connection parameters provided, connecting to traqueur database ... INFORMATION, connected to traqueur database INFORMATION, PostgreSQL version : 110000 INFORMATION, sql preparation ... INFORMATION, sql execution ... busy_pc | distinct_exe | pid | backend_type | query | wait_event_type | wait_event ---------+--------------+------+----------------+-----------------------------------+-----------------+-------------- 68 | 1 / 136 | 8262 | client backend | create index t1_i1 on t1(c1, c2); | IO | DataFileRead 26 | 1 / 53 | 8262 | client backend | create index t1_i1 on t1(c1, c2); | | 6 | 1 / 11 | 8262 | client backend | create index t1_i1 on t1(c1, c2); | IO | BufFileWrite (3 rows) No parallel worker. At least one parallel worker was active though, I could see its work with a direct query on pg_stat_activity or a ps -ef : ... postgres 8262 8230 7 08:54 ? 00:22:46 postgres: 11/main: postgres postgres [local] CREATE INDEX ... postgres 9833 8230 23 14:17 ? 00:00:33 postgres: 11/main: parallel worker for PID 8262 ... Tool only catches activity of the client backend cause column state of pg_stat_activity is null for the parallel workers in this case. I added an option to do a "(state = 'active' or wait_event_is not null)" It's not 100% accurate though : I miss the activity of the parallel workers which is not waiting and it’s more difficult to know who helps whom since query is also null. I can imagine various workarounds but 11 is in devel and maybe columns active & query of pg_stat_activity will be filled for the parallel workers even for an index creation ? Best regards Phil