I run a Perl/CGI driven website that makes extensive use of PostgreSQL
(7.4.3) for everything from user information to formatting and display
of specific sections of the site. The server itself, is a dual
processor AMD Opteron 1.4Ghz w/ 2GB Ram and 2 x 120GB hard drives
mirrored for redundancy running under FreeBSD 5.2.1 (AMD64).
Recently loads on the site have increased during peak hours to the point
of showing considerable loss in performance. This can be observed
when connections move from the 120 concurrent connections to PostgreSQL
to roughly 175 or more. Essentially, the machine seems to struggle
to keep up with continual requests and slows down respectively as
resources are tied down.
Code changes have been made to the scripts to essentially back off in
high load working environments which have worked to an extent.
However, as loads continue to increase the database itself is not taking
well to the increased traffic taking place.
Having taken a look at 'Tuning PostgreSQL for Performance'
(http://www.varlena.com/GeneralBits/Tidbits/perf.html) using it as best
I could in order to set my settings. However, even with statistics
disabled and ever setting tweaked things still consider to deteriorate.
Is there anything anyone can recommend in order to give the system a
necessary speed boost? It would seem to me that a modest dataset of
roughly a Gig combined with that type of hardware should be able to
handle substantially more load then what it is. Can anyone provide me
with clues as where to pursue? Would disabling 'fsync' provide more
performance if I choose that information may be lost in case of a crash?
If anyone needs access to logs, settings et cetera. Please ask, I
simply wish to test the waters first on what is needed. Thanks!
Martin Foster
martin@ethereal-realms.org