Message-ID: <4B429197.7010801@pinpointresearch.com>
Date: Mon, 04 Jan 2010 17:10:47 -0800
From: Steve Crawford <scrawford@pinpointresearch.com>
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To: Madison Kelly <linux@alteeve.com>
CC: Rosser Schwarz <rosser.schwarz@gmail.com>,
	Brad Nicholson <bnichols@ca.afilias.info>,
	Gary Doades <gpd@gpdnet.co.uk>, pgsql-performance@postgresql.org
Subject: Re: DB is slow until DB is reloaded
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	<1262638856.29852.4.camel@bnicholson-desktop>	
	<4B425E93.1050207@alteeve.com>
	<4B426359.9040601@pinpointresearch.com>	
	<4B426438.40109@alteeve.com>
	<37d451f71001041406i3f5d8d5fte8a29cfbc06998c9@mail.gmail.com>
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Madison Kelly wrote:
>
> You are right, autovacuum is not running after all. From your comment, 
> I am wondering if you'd recommend I turn it on or not?...
>
>
I see you are considering an upgrade but FWIW on your 8.1 instance, my 
remaining 8.1 server has been running for years with it on. Read up on 
it at:
http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.1/static/maintenance.html#AUTOVACUUM

Basically you need to turn on some stats stuff so autovacuum can 
determine when to run (in postgresql.conf):
stats_start_collector = on
stats_row_level = on

And you need to enable autovacuum (in postgresql.conf):
autovacuum = on
autovacuum_naptime = 300                # time between autovacuum runs, 
in secs

Then you can tune it if you need to but at least it will be looking for 
things that are vacuumworthy every 5 minutes.

Cheers,
Steve