Re: How to optimize monstrous query, sorts instead of

> Here's the output of explain analyze. The query typically takes 0-4 seconds
> depending on the time frame. It's run very frequently especially to process
> the nightly reports.

The plan picked seems reasonable (estimated costs / tuples is close to
actual).

I think the biggest hit is this index scan. Thats a substantial cost to
pull out less than a thousand lines:

-> Index Scan using monitorstatusxmonitori
on
monitorstatusx ms (cost=0.00..4695.65 rows=880 width=83) (actual
time=40.17..1868.12 rows=625 loops=1)
Index Cond: ("outer".jdoidx =
ms.monitorx)
Filter: ((datex >= '2003-06-20
08:57:21.36'::timestamp without time zone) AND (datex <= '2003-06-29
08:57:21.36'::timestamp without time zone))

Are jdoidx and monitorx integers?

You might try a multi-column index on (ms.monitorx, ms.datex).

Are monitorx assigned roughly ordered by date? It must be, otherwise
the sort step would not be so cheap (hardly any impact on the query --
see actual cost number). The multi-column index above should give you a
bit of a boost.

Depending on the data in the table, the index (ms.datex, monitorx) may
give better results along with a single index on (ms.monitorx) as you
currently have. It's not very likely though.

--
Rod Taylor <rbt(at)rbt(dot)ca>

PGP Key: http://www.rbt.ca/rbtpub.asc