> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tom Lane [mailto:tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us]
> Sent: Wednesday, June 11, 2003 12:28 PM
> To: Kaarel
> Cc: Justin Clift; Jay O'Connor; pgsql-general@postgresql.org
> Subject: Re: [GENERAL] Postgres performance comments from a
> MySQL user
>
>
> Kaarel <kaarel@future.ee> writes:
> > This makes me wonder why is the default configuration so
> conservative?
>
> There are still a lot of platforms where desirable settings
> will cause the database to fail to start, because the default
> kernel limits on shared memory are still set for
> 1980s-vintage hardware.
>
> We have had a policy for a long time that we'd rather the
> out-of-the-box settings be guaranteed to start than that they
> be optimal for performance. No one is going to get as far as
> testing performance if the system won't start for them.
>
> Having said that, though, I do wonder whether we couldn't
> bump them up a little. Are there still any live platforms
> where the default SHMMAX is less than 4 MB? (There was
> discussion of this a month or two back on pghackers, but no
> conclusion.)
I think this would be very, very nice:
Config_tool.exe runs, and examines:
Operating system, available memory, disk, cpu speed, etc. (whatever it
can figure out).
Then it makes good guesses for what PostgreSQL parameters to use and
reconfigures PostgreSQL.
If it was part of the installation, then even better.