Re: client performance v.s. server statistics

>>So, is it client interface (ODBC, libpq) 's cost mainly due to TCP?

The difference as compare to your embedded DB you are seeing is mainly seems
to be due to TCP.

One optimization you can use is to use Unix-domain socket mode of
PostgreSQL. You can refer unix_socket_directory parameter in postgresql.conf
and other related parameters.

I am suggesting you this as earlier you were using embedded DB, so your
client/server should be on same machine. If now this is not the case then it
will not work.

Can you please clarify some more things like

1. After doing sequence scan, do you need all the records in client for
which seq. scan is happening. If less records then why you have not created
index.

2. What is exact scenario for fetching records

From: pgsql-hackers-owner(at)postgresql(dot)org
[mailto:pgsql-hackers-owner(at)postgresql(dot)org] On Behalf Of Zhou Han
Sent: Wednesday, February 15, 2012 9:30 AM
To: pgsql-hackers(at)postgresql(dot)org
Subject: [HACKERS] client performance v.s. server statistics

Hi,

I am checking a performance problem encountered after porting old embeded DB
to postgreSQL. While the system is real-time sensitive, we are concerning
for per-query cost. In our environment sequential scanning (select * from
...) for a table with tens of thousands of record costs 1 - 2 seconds,
regardless of using ODBC driver or the "timing" result shown in psql client
(which in turn, relies on libpq). However, using EXPLAIN ANALYZE, or
checking the statistics in pg_stat_statement view, the query costs only less
than 100ms.

So, is it client interface (ODBC, libpq) 's cost mainly due to TCP? Has the
pg_stat_statement or EXPLAIN ANALYZE included the cost of copying tuples
from shared buffers to result sets?

Could you experts share your views on this big gap? And any suggestions to
optimise?

P.S. In our original embeded DB a "fastpath" interface is provided to read
directly from shared memory for the records, thus provides extremely
realtime access (of course sacrifice some other features such as
consistency).

Best regards,
Han