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To: pgsql-performance@postgresql.org
From: Richard Plotkin <richard@richardplotkin.com>
Subject: Disk filling, CPU filling, renegade inserts and deletes?
Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2005 12:28:45 -0700

Hi,

I'm having a pretty serious problem with postgresql's performance.  
Currently, I have a cron task that is set to restart and vacuumdb -faz 
every six hours.  If that doesn't happen, the disk goes from 10% full 
to 95% full within 2 days (and it's a 90GB disk...with the database 
being a 2MB download after dump), and the CPU goes from running at 
around a 2% load to a 99+% load right away (the stats look like a 
square wave).

So it's problem-hunting time, I guess.  The problem has something to do 
with the following errors (there are a lot; I'm posting a short sample)
NOTICE:  relation "pg_depend" TID 43/27: InsertTransactionInProgress 
209545 --- can't shrink relation
NOTICE:  relation "pg_depend" TID 43/28: InsertTransactionInProgress 
209545 --- can't shrink relation
NOTICE:  relation "pg_depend" TID 43/29: InsertTransactionInProgress 
209545 --- can't shrink relation
NOTICE:  relation "pg_depend" TID 43/30: InsertTransactionInProgress 
209545 --- can't shrink relation
NOTICE:  relation "pg_depend" TID 43/31: InsertTransactionInProgress 
209545 --- can't shrink relation
NOTICE:  relation "pg_depend" TID 43/32: InsertTransactionInProgress 
209545 --- can't shrink relation
NOTICE:  relation "pg_type" TID 17/44: InsertTransactionInProgress 
209545 --- can't shrink relation
NOTICE:  relation "pg_type" TID 17/45: InsertTransactionInProgress 
209545 --- can't shrink relation
NOTICE:  relation "pg_attribute" TID 133/11: 
InsertTransactionInProgress 209545 --- can't shrink relation
NOTICE:  relation "pg_attribute" TID 133/12: 
InsertTransactionInProgress 209545 --- can't shrink relation
NOTICE:  relation "pg_attribute" TID 133/13: 
InsertTransactionInProgress 209545 --- can't shrink relation
NOTICE:  relation "pg_attribute" TID 133/14: 
InsertTransactionInProgress 209545 --- can't shrink relation
NOTICE:  relation "pg_attribute" TID 133/15: 
InsertTransactionInProgress 209545 --- can't shrink relation
NOTICE:  relation "pg_attribute" TID 133/16: 
InsertTransactionInProgress 209545 --- can't shrink relation
NOTICE:  relation "pg_attribute" TID 133/17: 
InsertTransactionInProgress 209545 --- can't shrink relation
NOTICE:  relation "pg_class" TID 41/18: DeleteTransactionInProgress 
209545 --- can't shrink relation
NOTICE:  relation "pg_class" TID 41/19: DeleteTransactionInProgress 
209545 --- can't shrink relation
NOTICE:  relation "pg_class" TID 41/20: DeleteTransactionInProgress 
209545 --- can't shrink relation

When I vacuum full, I can't get rid of these errors unless I restart 
the database (and then I restart, vacuum full, and everything's fine).  
And once I do a successful vacuum full, CPU usage returns to normal, 
and the disk is no longer almost full (back to 10% full). I'm at a loss 
to figure out where the problem is coming from and how to fix it.

My machine: XServe G5 Dual 2GHz running Mac OS X Server 10.3.9.  
Postgresql 8.0.1

Thanks for any responses/ideas/solutions (best of all!),
Richard