Re: max_files_per_process limit

"=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Dilek_K=FC=E7=FCk?=" <dilekkucuk(at)gmail(dot)com> writes:
> We have a database of about 62000 tables (about 2000 tablespaces) with an
> index on each table. Postgresql version is 8.1.

You should probably rethink that schema. A lot of similar tables can be
folded into one table with an extra key column. Also, where did you get
the idea that 2000 tablespaces would be a good thing? There's really no
point in more than one per spindle or filesystem.

> Although after the initial inserts to about 32000 tables the subsequent
> inserts are considerable fast, subsequent inserts to more than 32000 tables
> are very slow.

This has probably got more to do with inefficiencies of your filesystem
than anything else --- did you pick one that scales well to lots of
files per directory?

> This seems to be due to the datatype (integer) of max_files_per_process
> option in the postgres.conf file which is used to set the maximum number of
> open file descriptors.

It's not so much the datatype of max_files_per_process as the datatype
of kernel file descriptors that's the limitation ...

regards, tom lane