Dan Armbrust <daniel(dot)armbrust(dot)list(at)gmail(dot)com> writes:
> However, once the checkpoint process begins, I get a whole flood of
> queries that take between 1 and 10 seconds to complete. My throughput
> crashes to near nothing. The checkpoint takes between 45 seconds and
> a minute to complete.
You sure this is 8.3? It should spread out checkpoints over a couple of
minutes by default. [thinks...] Maybe you need to increase
checkpoint_segments some more. If it's forcing the checkpoint in order
to hold down the number of WAL segments used up, that would explain a
fast checkpoint.
regards, tom lane