Re: Problem with copying data

Alan Hodgson <ahodgson(at)simkin(dot)ca> writes:
> On Friday 06 April 2007 13:17, Klaas Dellschaft <klaasd(at)uni-koblenz(dot)de>
> wrote:
>> I'm currently trying to copy two large files (1.6 GB and 3.5 GB) with a
>> "COPY FROM" into my database. But I'm waiting for the completion of this
>> job since more than 24h. I'm working under Linux and with "top" I can
>> see the two processes which should copy the data but most of the time
>> they are not working. Very seldom they are using some CPU time and then
>> get idle again.

> What does the wait % (%wa) say when they are "idle"? I would generally
> assume you're io-bound on a large COPY, especially if the target table is
> already indexed. 24-hours seems excessive, though, unless this is a
> notebook drive or something.

If there's other things going on in the database, then another
possibility is that the COPY commands are blocked on locks.
I agree that I/O is the most likely time sink though.

regards, tom lane