All the items you mentioned look like 8.2 issues to me. But here are
some thoughts.
Alvaro Herrera wrote:
>* Enable autovacuum by default.
>
> Get some field experience with it first, so the worst bugs are covered.
> (Has anybody tested it?)
>
>
I have done some testing and it seems to be working ok. I am planning
on doing some more in depth tests this week.
>* Stop a running VACUUM if the system load is too high.
>
What if vacuum used a vacuum delay that was equal to the vacuum delay
GUC settings * the system load. Or something more sophisticated but
this would have the effect of having vacuum automatically throttle down
when the system gets busy and throttle back up when the system gets
quiet. We would probably set some min / max values but it sounds
interesting, thoughts?