Notes From John Haasbeek on Performance

Take a look at:

http://www.varlena.com/varlena/GeneralBits/Tidbits/annotated_conf_e.html

http://www.powerpostgresql.com/Downloads/annotated_conf_80.html

I have kernel.shmmax and kernel.shmall both set to 268435456 in /etc/sysctl.conf. In my postgresql.conf file, I have the following adjustments:

shared_buffers = 16384

work_mem = 262144

max_fsm_pages = 20000

checkpoint_segments = 12

effective_cache_size = 16384

random_page_cost = 3

server_min_messages = warning

You have to stop and restart the postgres process after you edit the postgresql.conf file (and reboot after editing the sysctl.conf file, if you need to).

This is on a machine with 2GB or RAM and the data directory is on a SCSI RAID 0 array. I’m planning to move to 8.1 soon and will let you know if I find any other useful settings