>> Assuming the table's NOT bloated, you may do well to increase the
>> effective_cache_size, which doesn't allocate anything,
> <snip>
>> try setting it to something like 512MB or so.
>
> It's currently set to 1000MB.
>
>
>> If your table is bloating, and you don't have idle transactions hanging
>> of the database, it could be that your fsm settings are too low.
>
> fsm is currently set to 2000000. Is there any harm in setting it too
> high? =)
I generally recomend to use this - it's a nice list of the most
important settings in postgresql.conf (with respect to performance),
along with a short explanation, and suggested values:
http://www.powerpostgresql.com/PerfList
I'm using it as a general guide when setting and tuning our servers.
Anyway, as someone already pointed out, it's an art to choose the proper
values - there's nothing like 'the only best values'.
tomas