jao@geophile.com writes:
> I'm using PostgreSQL 7.3.4 on RH9. Data and logs are on separate
> disks. (These are low-end IDE disks. That part of the problem
> is out of my control.)
> When a checkpoint occurs, all operations slow way, way down.
Not too surprising; you haven't got enough I/O bandwidth.
> Does anyone have any experience in modifying the priority of the
> checkpoint process itself, (re-nicing it)?
That would be a waste of time, because your problem is with I/O usage
not CPU usage, and nice doesn't impact I/O scheduling AFAIK.
You might be able to get somewhere by inserting intrapage delays into
the checkpoint write loop, similar to what's been done to VACUUM since
7.4. (I have a todo item to do this for CVS tip, in fact.) You'd not
want this to happen during a shutdown checkpoint, but for ordinary
checkpoints I don't believe there's any problem with spacing out the
writes.
regards, tom lane