Received: from localhost (unknown [200.46.204.191]) by postgresql.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 156CE2E40FE for ; Thu, 24 Jan 2008 15:53:04 -0400 (AST) Received: from postgresql.org ([200.46.204.71]) by localhost (mx1.hub.org [200.46.204.191]) (amavisd-maia, port 10024) with ESMTP id 01588-03-3 for ; Thu, 24 Jan 2008 15:52:59 -0400 (AST) Received: from westnet.com (westnet.com [216.187.52.2]) by postgresql.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B45FD2E418B for ; Thu, 24 Jan 2008 14:52:50 -0400 (AST) Received: from westnet.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by westnet.com (8.14.0/8.14.0) with ESMTP id m0OIqnhY013889; Thu, 24 Jan 2008 13:52:49 -0500 (EST) Received: from localhost (gsmith@localhost) by westnet.com (8.14.0/8.13.2/Submit) with ESMTP id m0OIqnXM013886; Thu, 24 Jan 2008 13:52:49 -0500 (EST) X-Authentication-Warning: westnet.com: gsmith owned process doing -bs Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2008 13:52:49 -0500 (EST) From: Greg Smith X-X-Sender: gsmith@westnet.com To: Rick Schumeyer cc: pgsql-performance@postgresql.org Subject: Re: Configuration settings (shared_buffers, etc) in Linux: puzzled In-Reply-To: <4798D238.7070002@ieee.org> Message-ID: References: <4798D238.7070002@ieee.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed X-Virus-Scanned: Maia Mailguard 1.0.1 X-Archive-Number: 200801/222 X-Sequence-Number: 28461 On Thu, 24 Jan 2008, Rick Schumeyer wrote: > On a linux box (Linux db1 2.6.18.8-md #1 SMP Wed May 23 17:21:37 EDT 2007 > i686 GNU/Linux) > I edited postgresql.conf and changed: > > shared_buffers = 5000 work_mem = 16384 > max_stack_depth = 4096 > > and then restarted postgres. The puzzling part is that postgres actually > started. When I have done this on other boxes, I had to edit kernel settings > to allow for more shared memory. You can confirm whether the settings are actually taking like this: $ psql Welcome to psql 8.2.4, the PostgreSQL interactive terminal. postgres=# show shared_buffers; shared_buffers ---------------- 256MB (1 row) Since your shared_buffers setting should probably be in the hundreds of megabytes range if you want good performance, you may need to update your kernel settings anyway, but the above will let you see what the server is actually starting with. -- * Greg Smith gsmith@gregsmith.com http://www.gregsmith.com Baltimore, MD