On Mon, 2003-07-14 at 17:13, Jay O'Connor wrote: > What impact in performance does vacuum have on an active database? I'm > being asked about this...or rather...someone is questioning the use of > postgresql because of this
There is no easy answer to this question, other than if you vacuum appropriately (not to often, or too infrequently) the net impact on system performance is a win. A database system that doesn't require a vacuum type process still has to do the same work, it just does it at transaction time, postgres defers this work until vacuum is run, which is typically done at off peak times. As the author of the pg_autovacuum daemon in 7.4 contrib, I would suggest you try it :-) The primary advantage of the daemon is that it monitors activity and when needed, vacuums specific tables, not whole databases. The thresholds that dictate when vacuums occur can be set at runtime, and should allow you to get it performing the way you want. If you have any questions or problems let me know. I am always interested in hearing about others real world experiences. ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 9: the planner will ignore your desire to choose an index scan if your joining column's datatypes do not match