[PERFORM] Postgres using more memory than it should

2008-12-03 Thread Matthew Wakeling


Hi. I have a problem on one of our production servers. A fairly 
complicated query is running, and the backend process is using 30 GB of 
RAM. The machine only has 32GB, and is understandably swapping like crazy. 
My colleague is creating swap files as quickly as it can use them up.


The work_mem setting on this machine is 1000MB, running Postgres 8.3.0.

Here is an excerpt from top:

top - 15:54:17 up 57 days,  6:49,  3 users,  load average: 20.17, 21.29, 16.31
Tasks: 250 total,   2 running, 248 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu(s):  3.1%us,  2.5%sy,  0.0%ni, 15.2%id, 78.7%wa,  0.0%hi,  0.5%si,  0.0%st
Mem:  32961364k total, 32898588k used,62776k free,22440k buffers
Swap:  8096344k total,  8096344k used,0k free,  6056472k cached

  PID USER  PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEMTIME+  COMMAND
27192 postgres  18   0 30.6g  22g 1984 R   31 71.7  32:20.09 postgres: flymine 
production-release-15.0 192.168.128.84(33736) INSERT
  650 root  10  -5 000 S5  0.0  13:56.10 [kswapd2]
 5513 postgres  15   0  130m  19m  364 S4  0.1   1067:04 postgres: stats 
collector process
  957 root  10  -5 000 D1  0.0   1:39.13 [md2_raid1]
  649 root  10  -5 000 D1  0.0  14:14.95 [kswapd1]
28599 root  15   0 000 D1  0.0   0:01.25 [pdflush]
  648 root  10  -5 000 S0  0.0  15:10.68 [kswapd0]
 2585 root  10  -5 000 D0  0.0  67:15.89 [kjournald]

The query that is being run is an INSERT INTO table SELECT a fairly 
complex query.


Any ideas why this is going so badly, and what I can do to solve it?

Matthew

--
First law of computing:  Anything can go wro
sig: Segmentation fault.  core dumped.

--
Sent via pgsql-performance mailing list (pgsql-performance@postgresql.org)
To make changes to your subscription:
http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-performance


Re: [PERFORM] Postgres using more memory than it should

2008-12-03 Thread Bill Moran
In response to Matthew Wakeling [EMAIL PROTECTED]:
 
 Hi. I have a problem on one of our production servers. A fairly 
 complicated query is running, and the backend process is using 30 GB of 
 RAM. The machine only has 32GB, and is understandably swapping like crazy. 
 My colleague is creating swap files as quickly as it can use them up.
 
 The work_mem setting on this machine is 1000MB, running Postgres 8.3.0.

If your query it dealing with a lot of data, it could easily use 1G per
sort operation.  If there are a lot of sorts (more than 32) you'll end
up with this problem.

1G is probably too much memory to allocate for work_mem.

-- 
Bill Moran
Collaborative Fusion Inc.
http://people.collaborativefusion.com/~wmoran/

[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Phone: 412-422-3463x4023


IMPORTANT: This message contains confidential information and is
intended only for the individual named. If the reader of this
message is not an intended recipient (or the individual
responsible for the delivery of this message to an intended
recipient), please be advised that any re-use, dissemination,
distribution or copying of this message is prohibited. Please
notify the sender immediately by e-mail if you have received
this e-mail by mistake and delete this e-mail from your system.
E-mail transmission cannot be guaranteed to be secure or
error-free as information could be intercepted, corrupted, lost,
destroyed, arrive late or incomplete, or contain viruses. The
sender therefore does not accept liability for any errors or
omissions in the contents of this message, which arise as a
result of e-mail transmission.


-- 
Sent via pgsql-performance mailing list (pgsql-performance@postgresql.org)
To make changes to your subscription:
http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-performance


Re: [PERFORM] Postgres using more memory than it should

2008-12-03 Thread tv

 Hi. I have a problem on one of our production servers. A fairly
 complicated query is running, and the backend process is using 30 GB of
 RAM. The machine only has 32GB, and is understandably swapping like crazy.
 My colleague is creating swap files as quickly as it can use them up.

 The work_mem setting on this machine is 1000MB, running Postgres 8.3.0.

Are you aware that this is a per-session / per-sort settings? That means,
if you have 10 sessions, each of them running query with 2 sort steps in
the plan, it may occupy up to 20 GB of RAM (if both sorts use the whole
1GB of RAM).

regards
Tomas


-- 
Sent via pgsql-performance mailing list (pgsql-performance@postgresql.org)
To make changes to your subscription:
http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-performance


Re: [PERFORM] Postgres using more memory than it should

2008-12-03 Thread Matthew Wakeling

On Wed, 3 Dec 2008, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

Hi. I have a problem on one of our production servers. A fairly
complicated query is running, and the backend process is using 30 GB of
RAM. The machine only has 32GB, and is understandably swapping like crazy.
My colleague is creating swap files as quickly as it can use them up.

The work_mem setting on this machine is 1000MB, running Postgres 8.3.0.


Are you aware that this is a per-session / per-sort settings? That means,
if you have 10 sessions, each of them running query with 2 sort steps in
the plan, it may occupy up to 20 GB of RAM (if both sorts use the whole
1GB of RAM).


Quite aware, thanks.

Having sent the process a SIGINT and inspected the logs, I now have a 
query to explain. Looking at it, there is one single sort, and ten hash 
operations, which would equate to 10GB, not 30GB. What is more worrying is 
that now that the query has been stopped, the backend process is still 
hanging onto the RAM.


Matthew

--
Failure is not an option. It comes bundled with your Microsoft product. 
-- Ferenc Mantfeld


--
Sent via pgsql-performance mailing list (pgsql-performance@postgresql.org)
To make changes to your subscription:
http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-performance


Re: [PERFORM] Postgres using more memory than it should

2008-12-03 Thread Scott Marlowe
On Wed, Dec 3, 2008 at 9:34 AM, Matthew Wakeling [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 On Wed, 3 Dec 2008, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 Hi. I have a problem on one of our production servers. A fairly
 complicated query is running, and the backend process is using 30 GB of
 RAM. The machine only has 32GB, and is understandably swapping like
 crazy.
 My colleague is creating swap files as quickly as it can use them up.

 The work_mem setting on this machine is 1000MB, running Postgres 8.3.0.

 Are you aware that this is a per-session / per-sort settings? That means,
 if you have 10 sessions, each of them running query with 2 sort steps in
 the plan, it may occupy up to 20 GB of RAM (if both sorts use the whole
 1GB of RAM).

 Quite aware, thanks.

 Having sent the process a SIGINT and inspected the logs, I now have a query
 to explain. Looking at it, there is one single sort, and ten hash
 operations, which would equate to 10GB, not 30GB. What is more worrying is
 that now that the query has been stopped, the backend process is still
 hanging onto the RAM.

What's your setting for share_buffers, as that's likely what the
backend is holding onto.

Also, you should REALLY update to 8.3.5 as there are some nasty bugs
fixed from 8.3.0 you don't want to run into.  Who knows, you might be
being bitten by one right now.  Unlike other bits of software floating
around, pgsql updates are bug fix / security fix only, with no major
code changes allowed, since those go into the next release which is
usually ~1 year later anyway.

-- 
Sent via pgsql-performance mailing list (pgsql-performance@postgresql.org)
To make changes to your subscription:
http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-performance


Re: [PERFORM] Postgres using more memory than it should

2008-12-03 Thread Matthew Wakeling

On Wed, 3 Dec 2008, Scott Marlowe wrote:

Having sent the process a SIGINT and inspected the logs, I now have a query
to explain. Looking at it, there is one single sort, and ten hash
operations, which would equate to 10GB, not 30GB. What is more worrying is
that now that the query has been stopped, the backend process is still
hanging onto the RAM.


What's your setting for share_buffers, as that's likely what the
backend is holding onto.


Shared buffers are set at 500MB, which is what all the other backends are 
holding onto. It's just the one backend that is using 30GB. At the moment, 
it is being swapped out, but the system seems responsive. We'll restart 
the whole lot some time in the middle of the night when noone minds.



Also, you should REALLY update to 8.3.5 as there are some nasty bugs
fixed from 8.3.0 you don't want to run into.  Who knows, you might be
being bitten by one right now.  Unlike other bits of software floating
around, pgsql updates are bug fix / security fix only, with no major
code changes allowed, since those go into the next release which is
usually ~1 year later anyway.


It's possible, although I didn't see any relevant memory leaks in the 
release notes. This is one of the only machines we have that has not been 
upgraded, and it is on our schedule. Because it is running a slightly old 
version of RedHat Fedora, upgrading involves more horribleness than our 
sysadmin is willing to do on the fly with the server up.


Matthew

--
The email of the species is more deadly than the mail.

--
Sent via pgsql-performance mailing list (pgsql-performance@postgresql.org)
To make changes to your subscription:
http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-performance


Re: [PERFORM] Postgres using more memory than it should

2008-12-03 Thread hubert depesz lubaczewski
On Wed, Dec 03, 2008 at 04:01:48PM +, Matthew Wakeling wrote:
 The work_mem setting on this machine is 1000MB, running Postgres 8.3.0.

Check bug report from 2008-11-28, by Grzegorz Jaskiewicz:
query failed, not enough memory on 8.3.5

http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-bugs/2008-11/msg00180.php

depesz

-- 
Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/depesz  /  blog: http://www.depesz.com/
jid/gtalk: [EMAIL PROTECTED] / aim:depeszhdl / skype:depesz_hdl / gg:6749007

-- 
Sent via pgsql-performance mailing list (pgsql-performance@postgresql.org)
To make changes to your subscription:
http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-performance


Re: [PERFORM] Postgres using more memory than it should

2008-12-03 Thread Scott Marlowe
On Wed, Dec 3, 2008 at 9:59 AM, Matthew Wakeling [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 On Wed, 3 Dec 2008, Scott Marlowe wrote:
 Also, you should REALLY update to 8.3.5 as there are some nasty bugs
 fixed from 8.3.0 you don't want to run into.  Who knows, you might be
 being bitten by one right now.  Unlike other bits of software floating
 around, pgsql updates are bug fix / security fix only, with no major
 code changes allowed, since those go into the next release which is
 usually ~1 year later anyway.

 It's possible, although I didn't see any relevant memory leaks in the
 release notes. This is one of the only machines we have that has not been
 upgraded, and it is on our schedule. Because it is running a slightly old
 version of RedHat Fedora, upgrading involves more horribleness than our
 sysadmin is willing to do on the fly with the server up.

That makes absolutely no sense.  If it's an in house built rpm, you
just create a new one with the same .spec file, if it was built from
source it's a simple ./configure --youroptionshere ;make;make install.
  You need a new sysadmin.

-- 
Sent via pgsql-performance mailing list (pgsql-performance@postgresql.org)
To make changes to your subscription:
http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-performance


[PERFORM] How to profile an SQL script?

2008-12-03 Thread Kynn Jones
Hi.  I have a longish collection of SQL statements stored in a file that I
run periodically via cron.  Running this script takes a bit too long, even
for a cron job, and I would like to streamline it.
Is there a way to tell Postgres to print out, after each SQL statement is
executed, how long it took to execute?

Thanks!

Kynn


Re: [PERFORM] How to profile an SQL script?

2008-12-03 Thread Andreas Kretschmer
Kynn Jones [EMAIL PROTECTED] schrieb:

 Hi.  I have a longish collection of SQL statements stored in a file that I run
 periodically via cron.  Running this script takes a bit too long, even for a
 cron job, and I would like to streamline it.
 
 Is there a way to tell Postgres to print out, after each SQL statement is
 executed, how long it took to execute?

Do you run this with psql? You can switch on timing-output, with
\timing. It displays after each statement the run-time for this
statement.


Andreas
-- 
Really, I'm not out to destroy Microsoft. That will just be a completely
unintentional side effect.  (Linus Torvalds)
If I was god, I would recompile penguin with --enable-fly.   (unknown)
Kaufbach, Saxony, Germany, Europe.  N 51.05082°, E 13.56889°

-- 
Sent via pgsql-performance mailing list (pgsql-performance@postgresql.org)
To make changes to your subscription:
http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-performance


Re: [PERFORM] How to profile an SQL script?

2008-12-03 Thread Heikki Linnakangas

Andreas Kretschmer wrote:

Kynn Jones [EMAIL PROTECTED] schrieb:


Hi.  I have a longish collection of SQL statements stored in a file that I run
periodically via cron.  Running this script takes a bit too long, even for a
cron job, and I would like to streamline it.

Is there a way to tell Postgres to print out, after each SQL statement is
executed, how long it took to execute?


Do you run this with psql? You can switch on timing-output, with
\timing. It displays after each statement the run-time for this
statement.


See also log_duration and log_min_duration settings.

--
  Heikki Linnakangas
  EnterpriseDB   http://www.enterprisedb.com

--
Sent via pgsql-performance mailing list (pgsql-performance@postgresql.org)
To make changes to your subscription:
http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-performance


Re: [PERFORM] How to profile an SQL script?

2008-12-03 Thread Kynn Jones
Andreas, Heikki:

Thanks!
Kynn