Date: Tue, 9 Oct 2007 16:18:48 -0400
From: Bill Moran <wmoran@collaborativefusion.com>
To: "Radhika S" <radhika.sambamurti@gmail.com>
Cc: pgsql-performance@postgresql.org
Subject: Re: Postgres running Very slowly
Message-Id: <20071009161848.ef0f3ca6.wmoran@collaborativefusion.com>
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References: <fe27bfd40710091300h5838ad74sd2c0f90ae9918d4e@mail.gmail.com>
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In response to "Radhika S" <radhika.sambamurti@gmail.com>:

> Hi -,
> I have a very peculiar situation.
> 
> I am running a postgres 7.4.6 database. It is running slow....... .

7.4.6 is very old.  You're lucky it hasn't corrupted your data.  At
least upgrade to the latest 7.4.18 (yes, that's 12 patches ahead of
you).  Optimally, upgrade to 8.2.5, which has a huge number of
performance improvements.

> I vacuum --analyze daily. I just did again.
> I did a vacuum full last night.
> 
> But to no avail. CPU usage and memory are normal, but the system is
> crawling.

You need to specifically define "crawling" before anyone will be able
to provide any useful advice.  What queries are running slow?  What
does the explain output look like?  The answers are in the details,
so we can't provide the answers unless you provide the details.  Like
the OS you're running it on, for example.

> Here is the info from vacuum.
> 
> CPU 0.02s/0.01u sec elapsed 0.02 sec.
> INFO:  free space map: 167 relations, 1412 pages stored; 3440 total pages
> needed
> DETAIL:  Allocated FSM size: 1000 relations + 20000 pages = 178 kB shared
> memory.
> VACUUM

This doesn't look problematic, so I doubt your vacuum policy is to blame.

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

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