Routine maintenance - vacuum, analyse and autovacuum

Hi All,

I'm supposed to put together a plan for the routine maintenance of the new
database we are building using v7.4, and I have a question or two.

I'm interested in the auto vacuum daemon, but havn't located any good
information about it so far, I'd like to know if people generally recommend
using it or not.

If we use it, can we stop using nightly vacuums? I'd like to do this if
possible, since the current version (it's a 7.1 db) of the system runs a
number of batch processes at night (large deletes and large inserts), and
finishes with a vacuum analyse. The vacuum takes quite a long time and the
nightly window is gradually getting tighter and tighter.

On the other hand, the system is quite busy during the day, and once the
batch processes have finished the system is idle until about 9am.

The system is used 365 days a year, which doesn't leave much opportunity for
VACUUM FULL or unload reloads.

If I start a VACUUM FULL, is it ok to interrupt it part way through? I mean,
is a partially completed vacuum full worth anything, and is there any danger
in routinely killing it?

Thanks for your help,
regards
Iain