Description of "Queries gone wild" redacted. hehe.
Yeah, I've seen those kinds of queries before too. you might be able to limit your exposure by using alter user:
alter user userwhoneedslotsofworkmem set work_mem=1000000;
Is this applicable on 8.0? We were actually LOOKING for a governor of some sort for these queries. And something that is not explicitly stated, is that allocated up front or is that just a ceiling?
and then only that user will have that big of a default. You could even make it so that only queries that need that much log in as that user, and all other queries log in as other folks. Just a thought. I just get REAL nervous seeing a production machine with a work_mem set that high.
Which is actually how it's configured. We have a dedicated user connecting from Actuate. The reports developers use thier own logins when developing new reports. Only when they get published do they convert to the Actuate user.