Try this: alter system set max_parallel_workers = 20; and restart the system.
max_parallel_workers is still 8, according to both SHOW and pg_controldata, nor can you launch more than 8 workers. Even odder, if you just do regression=# set max_parallel_workers = 200; SET regression=# show max_parallel_workers; max_parallel_workers ---------------------- 200 (1 row) which should certainly not happen for a PGC_POSTMASTER parameter. We seem to have an awful lot of mechanism that's concerned with adjustments of max_parallel_workers, for something that apparently might as well be a compile-time #define ... so I assume it's supposed to be changeable at restart and somebody broke it. But it's not working as I'd expect in any branch from 10 onwards. regards, tom lane