Message-ID: <443A2021.5070105@archonet.com>
Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2006 10:06:41 +0100
From: Richard Huxton <dev@archonet.com>
User-Agent: Thunderbird 1.5 (X11/20051201)
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To: Gavin Hamill <gdh@laterooms.com>
Cc: pgsql-performance@postgresql.org
Subject: Re: pg 8.1.3, AIX, huge box, painfully slow.
References: <20060407185823.abe93017.gdh@laterooms.com>
	<1144436060.32269.13.camel@state.g2switchworks.com>
	<20060407205919.a091da26.gdh@laterooms.com>
	<1144441457.32269.29.camel@state.g2switchworks.com>
	<20060407222443.97ddf152.gdh@laterooms.com>
In-Reply-To: <20060407222443.97ddf152.gdh@laterooms.com>
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Gavin Hamill wrote:
> On Fri, 07 Apr 2006 15:24:18 -0500
> Scott Marlowe <smarlowe@g2switchworks.com> wrote:
> 
>>> See reply to Tom Lane :)
>> I didn't see one go by yet...  Could be sitting in the queue.
> 
> If it's not arrived by now - EXPLAIN ANALYZE doesn't tell me
> anything :)
> 
>> Let us know if changing the fsync setting helps.  Hopefully that's all
>> the problem is.
> 
> fsync's already off - yes a bit scary, but our I/O is only about
> 500KB/sec writing.. the whole db fits in RAM / kernel disk cache, and
> I'd rather have performance than security at this exact moment..

>>> Multi-Opteron was the other thing we considered but decided to give
>>> 'Big Iron' UNIX a whirl...
>> It still might be a good choice, if it's a simple misconfiguration
>> issue.
>>
>> But man, those new multiple core opterons can make some impressive
>> machines for very little money.
> 
> So I see - we could buy two quad-opterons for the cost of renting this
> pSeries for a month....

I don't know about the pSeries, but I had a client the other week with 
the same usage pattern. They made the switch from a quad Xeon to dual 
(+dual-core) Opteron and were extremely impressed.

I can probably put you in touch with their sysadmin - contact me 
off-list if you'd like that.

-- 
   Richard Huxton
   Archonet Ltd