Received: from maia.hub.org (maia-5.hub.org [200.46.204.29]) by mail.postgresql.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A6BEE63485F for ; Fri, 27 Aug 2010 13:01:09 -0300 (ADT) Received: from mail.postgresql.org ([200.46.204.86]) by maia.hub.org (mx1.hub.org [200.46.204.29]) (amavisd-maia, port 10024) with ESMTP id 98724-01-5 for ; Fri, 27 Aug 2010 16:01:01 +0000 (UTC) X-Greylist: from auto-whitelisted by SQLgrey-1.7.6 Received: from spinlock.commandprompt.com (host-215.commandprompt.net [207.173.203.215]) by mail.postgresql.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4B9A7635E62 for ; Fri, 27 Aug 2010 12:56:26 -0300 (ADT) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by spinlock.commandprompt.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 820FF348012; Fri, 27 Aug 2010 08:56:25 -0700 (PDT) X-Virus-Scanned: Debian amavisd-new at commandprompt.com Received: from spinlock.commandprompt.com ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (spinlock.commandprompt.com.commandprompt.com [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id Wb9q74hQD+B9; Fri, 27 Aug 2010 08:56:18 -0700 (PDT) Received: from [192.168.1.132] (unknown [75.142.155.118]) by spinlock.commandprompt.com (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 8F336348011; Fri, 27 Aug 2010 08:56:18 -0700 (PDT) Subject: Re: running in a virtual environment From: "Joshua D. Drake" Reply-To: jd@commandprompt.com To: David Bear Cc: pgsql-admin@postgresql.org In-Reply-To: References: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Organization: Command Prompt, Inc. Date: Fri, 27 Aug 2010 08:56:14 -0700 Message-ID: <1282924574.17406.85.camel@jd-desktop.unknown.charter.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Evolution 2.28.3 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Virus-Scanned: Maia Mailguard 1.0.1 X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-1.9 tagged_above=-10 required=5 tests=BAYES_00=-1.9 X-Spam-Level: X-Archive-Number: 201008/243 X-Sequence-Number: 35492 On Fri, 2010-08-27 at 08:21 -0700, David Bear wrote: > I'm wondering what experience people have had running pg 8.x in a > virtualized environment. Just to be a pain, there is no 8.x. There is 8.0.x, or more specifically the current version 8.4.x. The only reason I say this is we recently spent way too many bytes on the inner tubes trying to have that argument. > Are there any best practices to follow that differen when running on > a real metal? You need to spec your IO higher. You take an IO hit by virtualizing and it is significant. Considering provisioning at least 15% more IO than you would on bare metal. > Are there performance issue? Just the minor IO one I mentioned. > What virtual environment seems most friendly to pg ? Xen, VMWare, > other? For servers? KVM, VMWare, Xen are all perfectly serviceable. Depends on your actual business requirements. > What about storage; is it best to keep the cluster in a filesystem > that is part of the vm-image or on a mounted file system that exists > external to the image? (in other words, a /dev/sdxx that is really > some NAS type of device, or NFS? CIFS?) This has to do with actual business requirements. I tend to prefer DAS but a good SAN or NAS (iSCSI) configuration works well. I personally would avoid anything that is just a network mount like NFS or CIFS. Joshua D. Drake -- PostgreSQL.org Major Contributor Command Prompt, Inc: http://www.commandprompt.com/ - 509.416.6579 Consulting, Training, Support, Custom Development, Engineering http://twitter.com/cmdpromptinc | http://identi.ca/commandprompt