Re: [HACKERS] wal_buffers = -1

2014-01-17 Thread Robert Haas
On Fri, Jan 17, 2014 at 8:20 AM, Magnus Hagander wrote: >> Robert Haas reported that setting it to 32MB can yield a considerable >> performance benefit: >> >> http://www.postgresql.org/message-id/CA+TgmobgMv_aaakLoasBt=5iYfi=kdcOUz0X9TdYe0c2SZ=2...@mail.gmail.com > > In that case, sholdn't the aut

Re: [HACKERS] wal_buffers = -1

2014-01-17 Thread Thom Brown
On 17 January 2014 13:20, Magnus Hagander wrote: > On Fri, Jan 17, 2014 at 2:07 PM, Thom Brown wrote: >> >> On 17 January 2014 13:01, Magnus Hagander wrote: >> > Is there any real use-case for not setting wal_buffers to -1 these days? >> > >> > Or should we just remove it and use the -1 behaviou

Re: [HACKERS] wal_buffers = -1

2014-01-17 Thread Magnus Hagander
On Fri, Jan 17, 2014 at 2:07 PM, Thom Brown wrote: > On 17 January 2014 13:01, Magnus Hagander wrote: > > Is there any real use-case for not setting wal_buffers to -1 these days? > > > > Or should we just remove it and use the -1 behaviour at all times? > > > > IIRC we discussed not keeping it a

Re: [HACKERS] wal_buffers = -1

2014-01-17 Thread Andres Freund
Hi, On 2014-01-17 14:01:56 +0100, Magnus Hagander wrote: > Is there any real use-case for not setting wal_buffers to -1 these days? > > Or should we just remove it and use the -1 behaviour at all times? I have seen improvements by setting it larger than the max -1 one value. Also, for some workl

Re: [HACKERS] wal_buffers = -1

2014-01-17 Thread Thom Brown
On 17 January 2014 13:01, Magnus Hagander wrote: > Is there any real use-case for not setting wal_buffers to -1 these days? > > Or should we just remove it and use the -1 behaviour at all times? > > IIRC we discussed not keeping it at all when the autotune behavior was > introduced, but said we wa

Re: [HACKERS] wal_buffers

2012-08-30 Thread Amit Kapila
On Thursday, August 30, 2012 7:14 PM Robert Haas wrote: On Wed, Aug 29, 2012 at 10:25 PM, Peter Geoghegan wrote: > On 19 February 2012 05:24, Robert Haas wrote: >>> I have attached tps scatterplots. The obvious conclusion appears to >>> be that, with only 16MB of wal_buffers, the buffer "wraps a

Re: [HACKERS] wal_buffers

2012-08-30 Thread Robert Haas
On Wed, Aug 29, 2012 at 10:25 PM, Peter Geoghegan wrote: > On 19 February 2012 05:24, Robert Haas wrote: >> I have attached tps scatterplots. The obvious conclusion appears to >> be that, with only 16MB of wal_buffers, the buffer "wraps around" with >> some regularity: we can't insert more WAL b

Re: [HACKERS] wal_buffers

2012-08-29 Thread Peter Geoghegan
On 19 February 2012 05:24, Robert Haas wrote: > I have attached tps scatterplots. The obvious conclusion appears to > be that, with only 16MB of wal_buffers, the buffer "wraps around" with > some regularity: we can't insert more WAL because the buffer we need > to use still contains WAL that hasn

Re: [HACKERS] wal_buffers

2012-08-29 Thread Amit Kapila
On Tuesday, August 28, 2012 9:33 PM Bruce Momjian wrote: On Tue, Aug 28, 2012 at 09:40:33AM +0530, Amit Kapila wrote: > From: pgsql-hackers-ow...@postgresql.org > [mailto:pgsql-hackers-ow...@postgresql.org] On Behalf Of Bruce Momjian > >>> Added to TODO: > >>> Allow reporting of stalls due to

Re: [HACKERS] wal_buffers

2012-08-28 Thread Bruce Momjian
On Tue, Aug 28, 2012 at 09:40:33AM +0530, Amit Kapila wrote: > From: pgsql-hackers-ow...@postgresql.org > [mailto:pgsql-hackers-ow...@postgresql.org] On Behalf Of Bruce Momjian > > > Added to TODO: > > > Allow reporting of stalls due to wal_buffer wrap-around > > > > http://archives.po

Re: [HACKERS] wal_buffers

2012-08-27 Thread Amit Kapila
From: pgsql-hackers-ow...@postgresql.org [mailto:pgsql-hackers-ow...@postgresql.org] On Behalf Of Bruce Momjian > Added to TODO: > Allow reporting of stalls due to wal_buffer wrap-around > http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2012-02/msg00826.php Isn't this indicates that

Re: [HACKERS] wal_buffers

2012-08-27 Thread Bruce Momjian
Added to TODO: Allow reporting of stalls due to wal_buffer wrap-around http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2012-02/msg00826.php --- On Sun, Feb 19, 2012 at 12:24:12AM -0500, Robert Haa

Re: [HACKERS] wal_buffers, redux

2012-03-14 Thread Robert Haas
On Wed, Mar 14, 2012 at 3:29 PM, Jeff Janes wrote: > I think my analysis is pretty much a re-wording of yours, but I'd > emphasize that getting the WALWriteLock is bad not just because they > fight over the lock, but because someone else (probably background wal > writer) is camping out on the loc

Re: [HACKERS] wal_buffers, redux

2012-03-14 Thread Robert Haas
On Tue, Mar 13, 2012 at 11:18 PM, Robert Haas wrote: > On Tue, Mar 13, 2012 at 6:44 PM, Josh Berkus wrote: >>> That's a speedup of nearly a factor of two, so clearly fsync-related >>> stalls are a big problem here, even with wal_buffers cranked up >>> through the ceiling. >> >> H.   Do you ha

Re: [HACKERS] wal_buffers, redux

2012-03-14 Thread Jeff Janes
On Mon, Mar 12, 2012 at 7:16 AM, Robert Haas wrote: > On Sun, Mar 11, 2012 at 11:51 PM, Fujii Masao wrote: >> On Sun, Mar 11, 2012 at 12:55 PM, Robert Haas wrote: >>> I've finally been able to run some more tests of the effect of >>> adjusting wal_buffers to values higher than 16MB.  I ran the t

Re: [HACKERS] wal_buffers, redux

2012-03-13 Thread Robert Haas
On Tue, Mar 13, 2012 at 6:44 PM, Josh Berkus wrote: >> That's a speedup of nearly a factor of two, so clearly fsync-related >> stalls are a big problem here, even with wal_buffers cranked up >> through the ceiling. > > H.   Do you have any ability to test on XFS? It seems I do. XFS, with fsy

Re: [HACKERS] wal_buffers, redux

2012-03-13 Thread Robert Haas
On Tue, Mar 13, 2012 at 10:02 PM, Fujii Masao wrote: > On Wed, Mar 14, 2012 at 7:20 AM, Robert Haas wrote: >> On Tue, Mar 13, 2012 at 3:48 PM, Robert Haas wrote: >>> On Mon, Mar 12, 2012 at 4:45 PM, Jeff Janes wrote: Rerunning all 4 benchmarks (both 16MB and 32MB wal_buffers on both m

Re: [HACKERS] wal_buffers, redux

2012-03-13 Thread Fujii Masao
On Wed, Mar 14, 2012 at 7:20 AM, Robert Haas wrote: > On Tue, Mar 13, 2012 at 3:48 PM, Robert Haas wrote: >> On Mon, Mar 12, 2012 at 4:45 PM, Jeff Janes wrote: >>> Rerunning all 4 benchmarks (both 16MB and 32MB wal_buffers on both >>> machines) with fsync=off (as well as synchronous_commit=off s

Re: [HACKERS] wal_buffers, redux

2012-03-13 Thread Josh Berkus
> That's a speedup of nearly a factor of two, so clearly fsync-related > stalls are a big problem here, even with wal_buffers cranked up > through the ceiling. H. Do you have any ability to test on XFS? -- Josh Berkus PostgreSQL Experts Inc. http://pgexperts.com -- Sent via pgsql-hacker

Re: [HACKERS] wal_buffers, redux

2012-03-13 Thread Robert Haas
On Tue, Mar 13, 2012 at 4:55 AM, Andres Freund wrote: > On Tuesday, March 13, 2012 03:26:34 AM Robert Haas wrote: >> Meanwhile, here are some TPS graphs at 16MB and 32MB on the IBM POWER7 >> machine.  32 clients, 1800 seconds, scale factor 300, synchronous >> commit off. > That graph makes me crin

Re: [HACKERS] wal_buffers, redux

2012-03-13 Thread Robert Haas
On Tue, Mar 13, 2012 at 3:48 PM, Robert Haas wrote: > On Mon, Mar 12, 2012 at 4:45 PM, Jeff Janes wrote: >> Rerunning all 4 benchmarks (both 16MB and 32MB wal_buffers on both >> machines) with fsync=off (as well as synchronous_commit=off still) >> might help clarify things. > > I reran the 32-cli

Re: [HACKERS] wal_buffers, redux

2012-03-13 Thread Robert Haas
On Mon, Mar 12, 2012 at 4:45 PM, Jeff Janes wrote: > Rerunning all 4 benchmarks (both 16MB and 32MB wal_buffers on both > machines) with fsync=off (as well as synchronous_commit=off still) > might help clarify things. I reran the 32-client benchmark on the IBM machine with fsync=off and got this:

Re: [HACKERS] wal_buffers, redux

2012-03-13 Thread Robert Haas
On Mon, Mar 12, 2012 at 4:45 PM, Jeff Janes wrote: > Rerunning all 4 benchmarks (both 16MB and 32MB wal_buffers on both > machines) with fsync=off (as well as synchronous_commit=off still) > might help clarify things. > If it increases the TPS of Nate@16MB, but doesn't change the other 3 > situati

Re: [HACKERS] wal_buffers, redux

2012-03-13 Thread Andres Freund
On Tuesday, March 13, 2012 03:26:34 AM Robert Haas wrote: > Meanwhile, here are some TPS graphs at 16MB and 32MB on the IBM POWER7 > machine. 32 clients, 1800 seconds, scale factor 300, synchronous > commit off. That graph makes me cringe because its pretty representative of what I have seen in p

Re: [HACKERS] wal_buffers, redux

2012-03-12 Thread Robert Haas
On Mon, Mar 12, 2012 at 4:45 PM, Jeff Janes wrote: >>> Do you think the difference is in the CPU architecture, or the >>> IO subsystem? >> >> That is an excellent question.  I tried looking at vmstat output, but >> a funny thing kept happening: periodically, the iowait column would >> show a gigan

Re: [HACKERS] wal_buffers, redux

2012-03-12 Thread Jeff Janes
On Mon, Mar 12, 2012 at 10:55 AM, Robert Haas wrote: > On Mon, Mar 12, 2012 at 12:32 PM, Jeff Janes wrote: >> On Nate Boley's machine, the difference was ~100% increase rather than >> ~10%. > > Oh, right.  I had forgotten how dramatic the changes were in those > test runs.  I guess I should be ha

Re: [HACKERS] wal_buffers, redux

2012-03-12 Thread Robert Haas
On Mon, Mar 12, 2012 at 12:32 PM, Jeff Janes wrote: > On Nate Boley's machine, the difference was ~100% increase rather than > ~10%. Oh, right. I had forgotten how dramatic the changes were in those test runs. I guess I should be happy that the absolute numbers on this machine were as high as t

Re: [HACKERS] wal_buffers, redux

2012-03-12 Thread Jeff Janes
On Sat, Mar 10, 2012 at 7:55 PM, Robert Haas wrote: > I've finally been able to run some more tests of the effect of > adjusting wal_buffers to values higher than 16MB.  I ran the test on > the 16 core (x 4 hw threads/core) IBM POWER7 machine, with my usual > configuration settings: > > shared_buf

Re: [HACKERS] wal_buffers, redux

2012-03-12 Thread Robert Haas
On Sun, Mar 11, 2012 at 11:51 PM, Fujii Masao wrote: > On Sun, Mar 11, 2012 at 12:55 PM, Robert Haas wrote: >> I've finally been able to run some more tests of the effect of >> adjusting wal_buffers to values higher than 16MB.  I ran the test on >> the 16 core (x 4 hw threads/core) IBM POWER7 mac

Re: [HACKERS] wal_buffers, redux

2012-03-11 Thread Fujii Masao
On Sun, Mar 11, 2012 at 12:55 PM, Robert Haas wrote: > I've finally been able to run some more tests of the effect of > adjusting wal_buffers to values higher than 16MB.  I ran the test on > the 16 core (x 4 hw threads/core) IBM POWER7 machine, with my usual > configuration settings: > > shared_bu

Re: [HACKERS] wal_buffers

2012-02-20 Thread Robert Haas
On Mon, Feb 20, 2012 at 3:59 AM, Simon Riggs wrote: >> There is no existing statistics view suitable to include such information. >> What about defining pg_stat_xlog or something? > > Perhaps pg_stat_perf so we don't need to find a new home every time. > > Thinking about it, I think renaming pg_st

Re: [HACKERS] wal_buffers

2012-02-20 Thread Simon Riggs
On Mon, Feb 20, 2012 at 4:10 AM, Fujii Masao wrote: > On Mon, Feb 20, 2012 at 3:08 AM, Robert Haas wrote: >> On Sun, Feb 19, 2012 at 9:46 AM, Euler Taveira de Oliveira >> wrote: >>> On 19-02-2012 02:24, Robert Haas wrote: I have attached tps scatterplots.  The obvious conclusion appears to

Re: [HACKERS] wal_buffers

2012-02-19 Thread Greg Smith
On 02/19/2012 12:24 AM, Robert Haas wrote: I think we might want to consider adjusting our auto-tuning formula for wal_buffers to allow for a higher cap, although this is obviously not enough data to draw any firm conclusions. That's an easy enough idea to throw into my testing queue. The 16MB

Re: [HACKERS] wal_buffers

2012-02-19 Thread Fujii Masao
On Mon, Feb 20, 2012 at 3:08 AM, Robert Haas wrote: > On Sun, Feb 19, 2012 at 9:46 AM, Euler Taveira de Oliveira > wrote: >> On 19-02-2012 02:24, Robert Haas wrote: >>> I have attached tps scatterplots.  The obvious conclusion appears to >>> be that, with only 16MB of wal_buffers, the buffer "wra

Re: [HACKERS] wal_buffers

2012-02-19 Thread Simon Riggs
On Sun, Feb 19, 2012 at 6:33 PM, Tom Lane wrote: > Robert Haas writes: >> On Sun, Feb 19, 2012 at 9:46 AM, Euler Taveira de Oliveira >> wrote: >>> Isn't it useful to print some messages on the log when we have "wrap >>> around"? >>> In this case, we have an idea that wal_buffers needs to be inc

Re: [HACKERS] wal_buffers

2012-02-19 Thread Tom Lane
Robert Haas writes: > On Sun, Feb 19, 2012 at 9:46 AM, Euler Taveira de Oliveira > wrote: >> Isn't it useful to print some messages on the log when we have "wrap around"? >> In this case, we have an idea that wal_buffers needs to be increased. > I was thinking about that. I think that what migh

Re: [HACKERS] wal_buffers

2012-02-19 Thread Robert Haas
On Sun, Feb 19, 2012 at 9:46 AM, Euler Taveira de Oliveira wrote: > On 19-02-2012 02:24, Robert Haas wrote: >> I have attached tps scatterplots.  The obvious conclusion appears to >> be that, with only 16MB of wal_buffers, the buffer "wraps around" with >> some regularity >> > Isn't it useful to p

Re: [HACKERS] wal_buffers

2012-02-19 Thread Euler Taveira de Oliveira
On 19-02-2012 02:24, Robert Haas wrote: > I have attached tps scatterplots. The obvious conclusion appears to > be that, with only 16MB of wal_buffers, the buffer "wraps around" with > some regularity > Isn't it useful to print some messages on the log when we have "wrap around"? In this case, we

Re: GUC assign hooks (was Re: [HACKERS] wal_buffers = -1 and SIGHUP)

2011-04-04 Thread Robert Haas
On Mon, Apr 4, 2011 at 4:57 PM, Tom Lane wrote: > Robert Haas writes: >> OK.  Please comment the crap out of whatever you do, or maybe even add >> a README.  This stuff is just a bit arcane, and guideposts help a lot. > > We already have a README for that ;-).  PFA, a patch to > src/backend/utils

Re: GUC assign hooks (was Re: [HACKERS] wal_buffers = -1 and SIGHUP)

2011-04-04 Thread Tom Lane
Robert Haas writes: > OK. Please comment the crap out of whatever you do, or maybe even add > a README. This stuff is just a bit arcane, and guideposts help a lot. We already have a README for that ;-). PFA, a patch to src/backend/utils/misc/README describing the proposed revised API. If nobo

Re: GUC assign hooks (was Re: [HACKERS] wal_buffers = -1 and SIGHUP)

2011-04-04 Thread Robert Haas
On Mon, Apr 4, 2011 at 3:14 PM, Tom Lane wrote: > Robert Haas writes: >> On Mon, Apr 4, 2011 at 2:58 PM, Tom Lane wrote: >>> Another variant would be to allow the check_hook to pass back a separate >>> "void *" value that could be passed on to the assign_hook, containing >>> any necessary derive

Re: GUC assign hooks (was Re: [HACKERS] wal_buffers = -1 and SIGHUP)

2011-04-04 Thread Tom Lane
Robert Haas writes: > On Mon, Apr 4, 2011 at 2:58 PM, Tom Lane wrote: >> Another variant would be to allow the check_hook to pass back a separate >> "void *" value that could be passed on to the assign_hook, containing >> any necessary derived data.  This is logically a bit cleaner, and would >>

Re: GUC assign hooks (was Re: [HACKERS] wal_buffers = -1 and SIGHUP)

2011-04-04 Thread Robert Haas
On Mon, Apr 4, 2011 at 2:58 PM, Tom Lane wrote: > Robert Haas writes: >> On Mon, Apr 4, 2011 at 2:41 PM, Tom Lane wrote: >>> Given these rules, a check_hook and assign_hook could cooperate to store >>> additional data in what guc.c thinks is just a pointer to a string >>> value, ie, there can be

Re: GUC assign hooks (was Re: [HACKERS] wal_buffers = -1 and SIGHUP)

2011-04-04 Thread Tom Lane
Robert Haas writes: > On Mon, Apr 4, 2011 at 2:41 PM, Tom Lane wrote: >> Given these rules, a check_hook and assign_hook could cooperate to store >> additional data in what guc.c thinks is just a pointer to a string >> value, ie, there can be more data after the terminating \0.  The >> assign_hoo

Re: GUC assign hooks (was Re: [HACKERS] wal_buffers = -1 and SIGHUP)

2011-04-04 Thread Robert Haas
On Mon, Apr 4, 2011 at 2:41 PM, Tom Lane wrote: > I wrote: >> IMO the real problem is essentially that GUC assign hooks have two >> functions, checking and canonicalization of the value-to-be-stored >> versus executing secondary actions when an assignment is made; and >> there's no way to get at j

Re: GUC assign hooks (was Re: [HACKERS] wal_buffers = -1 and SIGHUP)

2011-04-04 Thread Tom Lane
I wrote: > IMO the real problem is essentially that GUC assign hooks have two > functions, checking and canonicalization of the value-to-be-stored > versus executing secondary actions when an assignment is made; and > there's no way to get at just the first one. So we cannot canonicalize > the val

Re: GUC assign hooks (was Re: [HACKERS] wal_buffers = -1 and SIGHUP)

2011-04-04 Thread Kevin Grittner
Robert Haas wrote: > On Sun, Apr 3, 2011 at 1:26 PM, Tom Lane wrote: >> It would probably take less than a day to flesh out this idea and >> make it happen, but it does seem like a rather large change for >> late alpha. > what we're trying to avoid is committing new stuff that may require > a

Re: GUC assign hooks (was Re: [HACKERS] wal_buffers = -1 and SIGHUP)

2011-04-03 Thread Tom Lane
Robert Haas writes: > On Sun, Apr 3, 2011 at 1:26 PM, Tom Lane wrote: >> IMO the real problem is essentially that GUC assign hooks have two >> functions, checking and canonicalization of the value-to-be-stored >> versus executing secondary actions when an assignment is made; and >> there's no way

Re: GUC assign hooks (was Re: [HACKERS] wal_buffers = -1 and SIGHUP)

2011-04-03 Thread Robert Haas
On Sun, Apr 3, 2011 at 1:26 PM, Tom Lane wrote: > IMO the real problem is essentially that GUC assign hooks have two > functions, checking and canonicalization of the value-to-be-stored > versus executing secondary actions when an assignment is made; and > there's no way to get at just the first o

GUC assign hooks (was Re: [HACKERS] wal_buffers = -1 and SIGHUP)

2011-04-03 Thread Tom Lane
I wrote: > Robert Haas writes: >> I had intended to commit Greg's patch with a show hook and an assign >> hook and the calculated value stored separately from the GUC variable, >> which I believe would avoid this is a problem, but Tom thought this >> way was better. Unfortunately, my knowledge of

Re: [HACKERS] wal_buffers = -1 and SIGHUP

2011-04-02 Thread Tom Lane
Robert Haas writes: > On Thu, Mar 31, 2011 at 8:38 AM, Bernd Helmle wrote: >> This might be nitpicking (or i'm currently missing something), but i >> recognized that setting wal_buffers = -1 always triggers the following on >> reload, even if nothing to wal_buffers had changed: >> >> $ pg_ctl re

Re: [HACKERS] wal_buffers = -1 and SIGHUP

2011-03-31 Thread Robert Haas
On Thu, Mar 31, 2011 at 8:38 AM, Bernd Helmle wrote: > This might be nitpicking (or i'm currently missing something), but i > recognized that setting wal_buffers = -1 always triggers the following on > reload, even if nothing to wal_buffers had changed: > > $ pg_ctl reload > LOG:  received SIGHUP,