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Message-ID: <dcc563d10804070927t29a3fe36qed0c03198a67e7c1@mail.gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 7 Apr 2008 10:27:02 -0600
From: "Scott Marlowe" <scott.marlowe@gmail.com>
To: "Carol Walter" <walterc@indiana.edu>
Subject: Re: Tuning
Cc: pgsql-admin@postgresql.org
In-Reply-To: <6F737A76-FC25-4876-A6E0-163B87ECFAB0@indiana.edu>
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References: <6F737A76-FC25-4876-A6E0-163B87ECFAB0@indiana.edu>

On Mon, Apr 7, 2008 at 9:33 AM, Carol Walter <walterc@indiana.edu> wrote:
> I have some questions about tuning.  The PostgreSQL documentation says that
> you don't need to worry about index maintenance and tuning with PostgreSQL.
> I'm used to systems that work a lot better if they are periodically re-orged
> or re-indexed.  Is it true that one need not be concerned with this?  I'm
> certain that the databases must require some human intervention.  What kind
> of tuning or other intervention are you doing.  What kind of tools are
> available and are being used.

Not sure where in the docs it exactly says to never worry about your indexes.

While most access patterns can indeed be handled fine by autovacuum,
you can use the reindex command in pgsql to optimize your indexes if
they're chock full of empty space that can't be reclaimed by vacuum.

You can monitor things like index and table bloat with the pg_stat_*
series of views.