pg.ddx.io  pgsql-performance@postgresql.org mailing list archive  
help / color / mirror / Atom feed
Transaction Log
7+ messages / 7 participants
[nested] [flat]

* Transaction Log
@ 2007-08-29 19:22  Markus Benne <mbenne@m-bass.com>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 7+ messages in thread

From: Markus Benne @ 2007-08-29 19:22 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: pgsql-performance

For best performance, the transaction log should be on a separate disk.

Does the writing of the log benefit from a battery backed controller as well?  If not, what do people think about writing the transaction log to a flash card or the like?



^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 7+ messages in thread

* Transaction Log
@ 2007-08-29 19:24  mbguy2000-1@yahoo.com
  0 siblings, 1 reply; 7+ messages in thread

From: mbguy2000-1@yahoo.com @ 2007-08-29 19:24 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: pgsql-performance

For best performance, the transaction log should be on a separate disk.

Does
the writing of the log benefit from a battery backed controller as
well?  If not, what do people think about writing the transaction log
to a flash card or the like?


^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 7+ messages in thread

* Re: Transaction Log
@ 2007-08-29 19:54  Mark Mielke <mark@mark.mielke.cc>
  parent: mbguy2000-1@yahoo.com
  0 siblings, 2 replies; 7+ messages in thread

From: Mark Mielke @ 2007-08-29 19:54 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: mbguy2000-1@yahoo.com; +Cc: pgsql-performance

mbguy2000-1@yahoo.com wrote:
> For best performance, the transaction log should be on a separate disk.
>
> Does the writing of the log benefit from a battery backed controller 
> as well?  If not, what do people think about writing the transaction 
> log to a flash card or the like?
How popular are the battery backed RAM drives that exist today? I don't 
recall seeing them spoken about in this mailing list. The local geek 
shop has these devices on sale. Are they still too expensive?

For those that don't know what I am talking about - they are PCI devices 
that present themselves as a hard drive, but are filled with commodity 
RAM instead of a magnetic platter, and a battery that lasts a few weeks 
without external power.

Cheers,
mark

-- 
Mark Mielke <mark@mielke.cc>

^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 7+ messages in thread

* Re: Transaction Log
@ 2007-08-29 20:11  Steve Atkins <steve@blighty.com>
  parent: Mark Mielke <mark@mark.mielke.cc>
  1 sibling, 2 replies; 7+ messages in thread

From: Steve Atkins @ 2007-08-29 20:11 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: pgsql-performance


On Aug 29, 2007, at 12:54 PM, Mark Mielke wrote:

> mbguy2000-1@yahoo.com wrote:
>> For best performance, the transaction log should be on a separate  
>> disk.
>>
>> Does the writing of the log benefit from a battery backed  
>> controller as well?  If not, what do people think about writing  
>> the transaction log to a flash card or the like?
> How popular are the battery backed RAM drives that exist today? I  
> don't recall seeing them spoken about in this mailing list. The  
> local geek shop has these devices on sale. Are they still too  
> expensive?
>
> For those that don't know what I am talking about - they are PCI  
> devices that present themselves as a hard drive, but are filled  
> with commodity RAM instead of a magnetic platter, and a battery  
> that lasts a few weeks without external power.

It think the general conclusion was "When they come out with an ECC  
version, we'll look at them."

There are higher end ones that do have ECC RAM (and backup drives and  
stuff) but they're spectacularly more expensive than the cheapo  
consumer ones.

Cheers,
   Steve






^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 7+ messages in thread

* Re: Transaction Log
@ 2007-08-29 20:17  Steinar H. Gunderson <sgunderson@bigfoot.com>
  parent: Steve Atkins <steve@blighty.com>
  1 sibling, 0 replies; 7+ messages in thread

From: Steinar H. Gunderson @ 2007-08-29 20:17 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: pgsql-performance

On Wed, Aug 29, 2007 at 01:11:32PM -0700, Steve Atkins wrote:
> It think the general conclusion was "When they come out with an ECC 
> version, we'll look at them."

FWIW, it shouldn't be impossible to implement ECC in software; they'd still
be orders of magnitude faster than normal disks.

/* Steinar */
-- 
Homepage: http://www.sesse.net/



^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 7+ messages in thread

* Re: Transaction Log
@ 2007-08-29 20:21  Bill Moran <wmoran@collaborativefusion.com>
  parent: Mark Mielke <mark@mark.mielke.cc>
  1 sibling, 0 replies; 7+ messages in thread

From: Bill Moran @ 2007-08-29 20:21 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Mark Mielke <mark@mark.mielke.cc>; +Cc: mbguy2000-1@yahoo.com; pgsql-performance

In response to Mark Mielke <mark@mark.mielke.cc>:

> mbguy2000-1@yahoo.com wrote:
> > For best performance, the transaction log should be on a separate disk.
> >
> > Does the writing of the log benefit from a battery backed controller 
> > as well?  If not, what do people think about writing the transaction 
> > log to a flash card or the like?

Flash cards write _very_ slowly.

> How popular are the battery backed RAM drives that exist today? I don't 
> recall seeing them spoken about in this mailing list. The local geek 
> shop has these devices on sale. Are they still too expensive?

I've seen them around and as best I can tell, they're pretty
inexpensive.  The main drawback is the storage, you'd be looking at
the price of the card, plus the price of however much RAM you wanted
on it.

http://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-GC-RAMDISK-i-RAM-Hard-Drive/dp/B000EPM9NC/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-3968336...
http://techreport.com/articles.x/9312/1
Up to 4G, but you have to add the price of the RAM on to the price of
the card.

In the case of WAL logs, you could probably get away with a lot less
space than many other usages, so they might be very practical.

-- 
Bill Moran
Collaborative Fusion Inc.
http://people.collaborativefusion.com/~wmoran/

wmoran@collaborativefusion.com
Phone: 412-422-3463x4023



^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 7+ messages in thread

* Re: Transaction Log
@ 2007-08-29 20:36  Alan Hodgson <ahodgson@simkin.ca>
  parent: Steve Atkins <steve@blighty.com>
  1 sibling, 0 replies; 7+ messages in thread

From: Alan Hodgson @ 2007-08-29 20:36 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: pgsql-performance

On Wednesday 29 August 2007, Steve Atkins <steve@blighty.com> wrote:
> There are higher end ones that do have ECC RAM (and backup drives and
> stuff) but they're spectacularly more expensive than the cheapo
> consumer ones.
>

Yeah the good ones look more like http://ramsan.com/ .

-- 
"Pulling together is the aim of despotism and tyranny. Free men pull in 
all kinds of directions." -- Terry Pratchett




^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 7+ messages in thread


end of thread, other threads:[~2007-08-29 20:36 UTC | newest]

Thread overview: 7+ messages (download: mbox mbox.gz follow: Atom feed)
-- links below jump to the message on this page --
2007-08-29 19:22 Transaction Log Markus Benne <mbenne@m-bass.com>
2007-08-29 19:24 Transaction Log mbguy2000-1@yahoo.com
2007-08-29 19:54 ` Mark Mielke <mark@mark.mielke.cc>
2007-08-29 20:11   ` Steve Atkins <steve@blighty.com>
2007-08-29 20:17     ` Steinar H. Gunderson <sgunderson@bigfoot.com>
2007-08-29 20:36     ` Alan Hodgson <ahodgson@simkin.ca>
2007-08-29 20:21   ` Bill Moran <wmoran@collaborativefusion.com>

This inbox is served by DDX for PostgreSQL; see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox