Received: from maia.hub.org (maia-5.hub.org [200.46.204.29]) by mail.postgresql.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id BDEFE1337B68 for ; Tue, 3 May 2011 14:22:46 -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 75664-03 for ; Tue, 3 May 2011 17:22:39 +0000 (UTC) X-Greylist: domain auto-whitelisted by SQLgrey-1.7.6 Received: from mail-gy0-f174.google.com (mail-gy0-f174.google.com [209.85.160.174]) by mail.postgresql.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 754F31337A5D for ; Tue, 3 May 2011 14:22:38 -0300 (ADT) Received: by gyd10 with SMTP id 10so112254gyd.19 for ; Tue, 03 May 2011 10:22:37 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:from:content-type:content-transfer-encoding :subject:date:message-id:to:mime-version:x-mailer; bh=YQHNSyxlx/+K26B79CTvE4UHbAAa210H/m8E9Ad992Q=; b=SxzuxvB+tsJm/yBbL/VSBiZc2HkFqudZRaxsN9gY6FYMHxeRNZOGPfmLLm8lvX9rWt U/HAOG5KaQ1auHk5lpJHL6w5jzOi9KhFI65qb5hXBW3wDwti/b7x2Fv72y+PFiAeVpxD NtWd6X/bV7rsJX11CZ8VQcr2l14M13jM21IEE= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=from:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:subject:date:message-id :to:mime-version:x-mailer; b=B9+pvjY0kU4L5hswfJE49ufXtyKt5kw60RLlQeK2qDWhX1UmfpDzj9iiuJ2HNKl7b/ bguBY4ttrJ3yRC1ZhtVIdlUUCfmtTVAy0aACaWjj+sNvU84vvEfax4TrYH8o+Xm2Cr4n zc5Rk7IU2z6zWN4bcJ30aavmg6kCcroiqFaNY= Received: by 10.151.4.9 with SMTP id g9mr186765ybi.381.1304443357496; Tue, 03 May 2011 10:22:37 -0700 (PDT) Received: from [10.10.12.190] ([66.64.111.226]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id t16sm139492ybe.19.2011.05.03.10.22.35 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=OTHER); Tue, 03 May 2011 10:22:36 -0700 (PDT) From: Todd Gugler Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Subject: Can autovacuum result in large surges in WAL files Date: Tue, 3 May 2011 12:22:33 -0500 Message-Id: To: pgsql-admin@postgresql.org Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v1084) X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.1084) X-Virus-Scanned: Maia Mailguard 1.0.1 X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-0.335 tagged_above=-10 required=5 tests=BAYES_00=-1.9, FREEMAIL_ENVFROM_END_DIGIT=1.553, FREEMAIL_FROM=0.001, RFC_ABUSE_POST=0.001, T_TO_NO_BRKTS_FREEMAIL=0.01 X-Spam-Level: X-Archive-Number: 201105/32 X-Sequence-Number: 37469 I have a Postgres 8.3 system that is configured to run autovacuum. It = triggered a vacuum analyze on multiple tables and since this started, we = are getting large numbers of WAL files generated about every 15 minutes = or so. This same vacuum appears to continuing to run. Other database = activity is at its usual levels. Should a vacuum analyze lead to large = amounts of data being written to WAL files? We are seeing 10x the = number WAL files that we would expect. Any ideas on the best approach to diagnose what is going on?=