Received: from localhost (unknown [200.46.204.183]) by mail.postgresql.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1DEA764FD5F for ; Wed, 17 Dec 2008 11:40:44 -0400 (AST) Received: from mail.postgresql.org ([200.46.204.86]) by localhost (mx1.hub.org [200.46.204.183]) (amavisd-maia, port 10024) with ESMTP id 98791-02 for ; Wed, 17 Dec 2008 11:40:39 -0400 (AST) X-Greylist: from auto-whitelisted by SQLgrey-1.7.6 Received: from mail.kickstone.com (smtp.kickstone.com [87.194.183.70]) by mail.postgresql.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4ACCA64FD3B for ; Wed, 17 Dec 2008 11:40:39 -0400 (AST) Received: from madras2.square-pi.com ([192.168.2.131] helo=MADRAS2) by mail.kickstone.com with esmtpa (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1LCyVo-0003zl-9u for pgsql-admin@postgresql.org; Wed, 17 Dec 2008 15:40:36 +0000 Message-ID: From: "John Lister" To: References: <2BB7361E57C4417A975C0474610BA4C3@squarepi.com> <27759.1229521625@sss.pgh.pa.us> <742A9D77A1BA4171AF52BBBF6F5F2C75@squarepi.com> <28510.1229525243@sss.pgh.pa.us> <20081217152830.GD4453@alvh.no-ip.org> Subject: Re: controlling autovacuum during the day. Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2008 15:40:36 -0000 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1"; reply-type=original Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.5512 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.5512 X-Virus-Scanned: Maia Mailguard 1.0.1 X-Spam-Status: No, hits=0.001 tagged_above=0 required=5 tests=STOX_REPLY_TYPE=0.001 X-Spam-Level: X-Archive-Number: 200812/128 X-Sequence-Number: 30961 > John Lister wrote: > >> bizarre... Its been turned off for a while, but from memory the >> autovacuum process was causing the table it was running on to be locked >> - I assumed this was an equivalent to VACUUM FULL - causing all other >> connections to wait until it had finished. Could this happen another way, >> i thought the other vacuum options acted passively... I'll turn it back >> on and see what happens... > > Maybe you're doing ALTER TABLE or something else that is blocked behind > vacuum? Vacuum doesn't block INSERT, UPDATE or DELETE, but it can block > other operations that want exclusive locks on the table. > > What Postgres version is this anyway? Now running 8.3, but this was on 8.2. This was just with standard updates, etc I guess i need to turn autovacuum back on to see what happens...