Re: Joel's Performance Issues WAS : Opteron vs Xeon

Sorry if you feel I am lashing out at a community.
Just to say it again, I am very appreciative of all the help everyone has
supplied.

I am running on more then just the 4 proc Dell (in fact my tests have been
mostly on desktops).

I have MSSQL running on a 2 proc dell which until my load has increased
(over aprx 2 years) it was just fine. I totally agree that there are better
solutions based on this lists comments, but I have all Dell hardware now and
resist trying different vendors just to suit Postgres. I was under the
impression there were still issues with 64bit postgres and Linux (or at
least were when I purchased). I believed I could make my next aquistion a
opteron based hardware.

Again I am not at all trying to critasize any one, so please except my
apology if I some how came across with that attitude. I am very disappointed
at this point. My views may not be that great (although I am not saying that
either), but they run ok on MSSQL and appear to run ok on MYSQL.

I wish I did understand what I am doing wrong because I do not wish to
revisit engineering our application for MYSQL.

I would of spent more $ with Command, but he does need my data base to help
me and I am not able to do that.

I agree testing the whole app is the only way to see and unfortunately it is
a time consuming bit. I do not have to spend 4k on MYSQL, that is if I want
to have their premium support. I can spend $250.00 a server for the
commercial license if I find the whole app does run well. I just loaded the
data last night and only had time to convert one view this morning. I am
sure it is something I do not understand and not a problem with postgres. I
also am willing to take time to get more knowledgeable, but my time is
running out and I feel honestly stupid.

I have been in the process of converting for over two months and have said
several times these lists are a godsend.

It was never my intention to make you feel like I was flaming anyone
involved. On the contrary, I feel many have taken time to look at my
questions and given excellent advice. I know I check the archives so
hopefully that time will help others after me.

I may yet find that MYSQL is not a good fit as well. I have my whole app
converted at this point and find pg works well for a lot of my usage.

There are some key reporting views that need to retrieve many rows with many
joins that just take too long to pull the data. I told my boss just now that
if I try to de-normalize many of these data sets (like 6 main groups of data
that the reporting may work, but as is many of my web pages are timing out
(these are pages that still work on MSSQL and the 2 proc machine).

Thanks again for all the help and know I truly appreciate what time every
one has spent on my issues.

I may find that revisiting the datasets is a way to make PG work, or as you
mentioned maybe I can get some one with more knowledge to step in locally. I
did ask Tom if he knew of anyone, maybe some one else on the list is aware
of a professional in the Tampa FL area.

Realistically I don't think a 30k$ Dell is a something that needs to be
junked. I am pretty sure if I got MSSQL running on it, it would outperform
my two proc box. I can agree it may not have been the optimal platform. My
decision is not based solely on the performance on the 4 proc box.

Joel Fradkin

-----Original Message-----
From: Josh Berkus [mailto:josh(at)agliodbs(dot)com]
Sent: Wednesday, April 20, 2005 1:54 PM
To: Joel Fradkin
Cc: pgsql-performance(at)postgresql(dot)org
Subject: Re: [PERFORM] Joel's Performance Issues WAS : Opteron vs Xeon

Joel,

> I did not see any marked improvement, but I don't think my issues are
> related to the hardware.

If you won't believe it, then we certainly can't convince you. AFAIK your
bad
view is a bad query plan made worse by the Dell's hardware problems.

> I am giving up on postgres and three developers two months of work and
> trying MYSQL.

I'd suggest testing your *whole* application and not just this one query.
And
remember that you need to test InnoDB tables if you want transactions.

>
> I have posted several items and not got a response (not that I expect
folks
> to drop everything). I want to thank everyone who has been of help and
> there are several.

Hmmm ... I see about 25 responses to some of your posts on this list.
Including ones by some of our head developers. That's more than you'd get
out of a paid MSSQL support contract, I know from experience.

If you want anything more, then you'll need a "do-or-die" contract with a
support company. If your frustration is because you can't find this kind of
help than I completely understand ... I have a waiting list for performance
contracts myself. (and, if you hired me the first thing I'd tell you is to
junk the Dell)

> I really like the environment and feel I have learned a lot in the past
few
> months, but bottom line for me is speed. We bought a 30K Dell 6650 to get
> better performance.

Would have been smart to ask on this list *before* buying the Dell, hey?
Even
a Google of this mailing list would have been informative.

> I chose PG because MSSQL was 70K to license. I believe
> the MYSQL will be 250.00 to license for us, but I may choose the 4k
> platinum support just to feel safe about having some one to touch base
with
> in the event of an issue.

Hmmm ... you're willing to pay MySQL $4k but expect the PG community to
solve
all your problems with free advice and a couple $100 with CMD? I sense an
apples vs. barca loungers comparison here ...

> I am not sure I am walking away feeling real good about
> postgres, because it just should not take a rocket scientist to get it to
> work, and I used to think I was fairly smart and could figure stuff out
and
> I hate admitting defeat (especially since we have everything working with
> postgres now).

While I understand your frustration (I've been frustrated more than a few
times with issues that stump me on Linux, for example) it's extremely unfair

to lash out at a community that has provided you a lot of free advice
because
the advice hasn't fixed everything yet. By my reading, you first raised
your
query issue 6 days ago. 6 days is not a lot of time for getting *free*
troubleshooting help by e-mail. Certainly it's going to take more than 6
days
to port to MySQL.

--
--Josh

Josh Berkus
Aglio Database Solutions
San Francisco