Re: VACUUM hanging on PostgreSQL 8.3.1 for larger tables

"Paragon" <lr@pcorp.us> writes:
> I am running into problems vacuuming my larger tables.  It seems for tables
> greater than 1 million rows, Vacuum just hangs.  I could leave it running
> for hours and it never comes to completion.

Is it actually *doing* anything, like consuming CPU or I/O -- and if so
which?  How much does VACUUM VERBOSE print before getting stuck?

> vmstat shows

vmstat without any arguments is very nearly useless, because what it
shows you is averages since system boot.  Watch "vmstat 1" for awhile
and you will get an actual picture of what's happening.

            regards, tom lane