Re: Sun Fire T2000 and PostgreSQL 8.1.3

I am evaluating this SunFire T2000 as a replacement for an Intel P3 1Ghz
postgresql server. This intel server runs a retail reporting database
on postgresql 8.1.3. I need to realize significant performance gains on
T2000 server to justify the expense. So I need to tune the postgresql
server as much as I can for it. Right now the operating system (solaris
10) sees each thread as a single cpu and only allows each thread 4.16%
of the available cpu resources for processing queries. Since postgresql
is not multithreaded and since I cannot apparently break past the
operating system imposed limits on a single thread I can't fully realize
the performance benefits of the T2000 server unless and until I start
getting lots of people hitting the database server with requests. This
doesn't happen right now. It may happen later on as I write more
applications for the server but I am looking to see if the performance
benefit we can get from this server is worth the price tag right now.
That is why I am looking for ways to tweak postgres on it.

Thanks,
Juan

-----Original Message-----
From: Josh Berkus [mailto:josh(at)agliodbs(dot)com]
Sent: Wednesday, April 05, 2006 6:02 PM
To: pgsql-performance(at)postgresql(dot)org
Cc: Juan Casero (FL FLC); Luke Lonergan
Subject: Re: [PERFORM] Sun Fire T2000 and PostgreSQL 8.1.3

Juan,

> When I hit
> this pgsql on this laptop with a large query I can see the load spike
> up really high on both of my virtual processors. Whatever, pgsql is
> doing it looks like both cpu's are being used indepently.

Nope, sorry, you're being decieved. Postgres is strictly one process,
one
query.

You can use Bizgres MPP to achieve multithreading; it's proprietary and
you have to pay for it. It does work well, though.

More importantly, though, you haven't really explained why you care
about multithreading.

--
--Josh

Josh Berkus
Aglio Database Solutions
San Francisco