Re: schema/db design wrt performance

On Thu, Jan 16, 2003 at 05:51:40AM -0800, CaptainX0r wrote:
> All,
>
> I just noted in another thread that use of foreign keys in postgres
> significantly hinders performance.  I'm wondering what other

Since I think I'm the one responsible for this, I'd better say
something clearer for the record.

The foreign keys implementation in PostgreSQL essentially uses SELECT
. . . FOR UPDATE to ensure that referenced data doesn't go away while a
referencing datum is being inserted or altered.

The problem with this is that frequently-referenced data are
therefore effectively locked during the operation.  Other writers
will block on the locked data until the first writer finishes.

So, for instance, consider two artificial-example tables:

create table account (acct_id serial primary key);

create table acct_activity (acct_id int references
account(acct_id), trans_on timestamp, val numeric(12,2));

If a user has multiple connections and charges things to the same
account in more than one connection at the same time, the
transactions will have to be processed, effectively, in series: each
one will have to wait for another to commit in order to complete.

This is just a performance bottleneck.  But it gets worse.  Suppose
the account table is like this:

create table account (acct_id serial primary key, con_id int
references contact(con_id));

create table contact (con_id serial primary key, name text, address1
text [. . .]);

Now, if another transaction is busy trying to delete a contact at the
same time the account table is being updated to reflect, say, a new
contact, you run the risk of deadlock.

The FK support in PostgreSQL is therefore mostly useful for
low-volume applications.  It can be made to work under heavier load
if you use it very carefully and program your application for it.
But I suggest avoiding it for heavy-duty use if you really can.

> take into consideration in the design of our database.  We're
> coming from Sybase and trying to design a more encompassing,
> modular, generic database that won't take a serious performance hit
> under postgres.

Avoid NOT IN.  This is difficult, because the workaround in Postgres
(NOT EXISTS) is frequently lousy on other systems.  Apparently there
is some fix for this contemplated for 7.4, but I've been really busy
lately, so I haven't been following -hackers.  Someone else can
probably say something more useful about it.

A

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