Re: load testing

> I wanted to do some quick load testing on a postgres database. Does
anyone
> have any tips on how to go about doing this?
> Thanks much.

   Sure.  Test after the manner in which the database is normally used,
and with "real-world" data.

   I've seen far too many people "benchmark" a database system by opening
a single connection, and issuing a number of queries.  However, it's more
common for a database server to be handling multiple queries at the same
time.

   Also, I've seen far too many people use contrived test data and
contrived queries.  However, the nature of queries may be very different
from the actual queries you run.  Test with what you use!

  For my own benchmarking, I usually log ~10,000 queries from our
production server, and start a Perl script that I whipped up quickly.  It
will split the queries into chunks, and test with 1 through 10
simultaneous connections, and that's been a very good indicator of how the
machine in question will behave once it's put into production.

steve