Basic Database Performance

Hi Guys,

Apologies if this is a novice queston, but I think it is a performance one
nevertheless. We are running a prototype of a system running on
PHP/Postgresql on an Intel Xeon 2ghz server, 1GB RAM, 40GB hard drive, as a
test bench. The system will be used for tens of thousands of users, and at
the moment we are testing on a base of around 400 users concurrently during
the day.

During the day, the system is incredibly slow to a point where it is
unusable. The reason we are testing on such as small server is to test
performance under pressure, and my estimation is that spec should handle
thousands of users.

The server spikes from 5% usage to 95% up and down. The system is a very
simple e-learning and management system and has not given us any issues to
date, only since we've been testing with more users has it done so. The fact
that 400 users doing inserts and queries every few minutes is very
concerning, I would like to know if I could be tweaking some config
settings.

We are running PG 7.4 on a Debian Sarge server, and will be upgrading to
pg8.0 on a new server, but have some migration issues (that's for another
list!)

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

All the very best,

James Dey

tel +27 11 704-1945

cell +27 82 785-5102

fax +27 11 388-8907

mail <mailto:james(at)mygus(dot)com> james(at)mygus(dot)com

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