Need help with 8.4 Performance Testing

Database performance geeks,

We have a number of patches pending for 8.4 designed to improve database
performance in a variety of circumstances. We need as many users as possible
to build test versions of PostgreSQL with these patches, and test how well
they perform, and report back in some detail.

Particularly, users with unusual hardware architectures (16 or more cores,
ARM, Power, SSD, NFS-mounted data) or operating systems (Solaris, OSX,
Windows-64) are really helpful. Testers need to be familiar with building
PostgreSQL from source and patching it, as well as basic PostgreSQL Tuning
(except for the Wizard Patch) and have some kind of performance test
available, ideally something based on your own application use.

If you are going to use pgbench to test, *please* read Greg Smith's notes
first:
http://www.westnet.com/~gsmith/gregsmith/content/postgresql/pgbench-scaling.htm

The Wiki (http://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/CommitFest_2008-11) has a full list
of patches, but below are the ones in particular we could use help with.

You *do* need to read the entire mail threads which I link to below to
understand the patches. Thanks for your help!

Proposal of PITR performance improvement (Koichi Suzuki):
http://archives.postgresql.org/message-id/a778a7260811270404g49254640x8ed58b12b7c65d0b@mail.gmail.com
http://archives.postgresql.org/message-id/a778a7260810280033n43f70d36x8c437eacf9a5461e@mail.gmail.com

Simple postgresql.conf wizard
http://archives.postgresql.org/message-id/Pine.GSO.4.64.0811012101220.17619@westnet.com
http://archives.postgresql.org/message-id/Pine.GSO.4.64.0811291403040.12885@westnet.com

Improve Performance of Multi-Batch Hash Join for Skewed Data Sets
http://archives.postgresql.org/message-id/6EEA43D22289484890D119821101B1DF2C1683@exchange20.mercury.ad.ubc.ca
http://archives.postgresql.org/message-id/1924d1180811051606w19aaf30du589e8ea10ea5534d@mail.gmail.com
http://archives.postgresql.org/message-id/22901.1227228246@sss.pgh.pa.us

Window Functions
http://archives.postgresql.org/message-id/e08cc0400810270912u49a6ec83vc23984c01f368f76@mail.gmail.com
http://archives.postgresql.org/message-id/492D1246.5070101@enterprisedb.com
http://archives.postgresql.org/message-id/839FB90FF49D4120B7107ED0D7B3E5B6@amd64

parallel restore
(especially need to test on 16+ cores)
http://archives.postgresql.org/message-id/490878AC.1@dunslane.net

B-Tree emulation for GIN
http://archives.postgresql.org/message-id/491B1888.9020903@sigaev.ru
http://archives.postgresql.org/message-id/Pine.LNX.4.64.0811191828050.7862@sn.sai.msu.ru

Also, the following patches currently still have bugs, but when the bugs are
fixed I'll be looking for performance testers, so please either watch the
wiki or watch this space:

-- Block-level CRC checks (Alvaro Herrera)
-- Auto Partitioning Patch (Nikhil Sontakke)
-- posix_fadvise (Gregory Stark)
-- Hash Join-Filter Pruning using Bloom Filters
-- On-disk bitmap indexes

Please report your results, with the patchname in the subject line, on this
mailing list or on -hackers. Thank you, and your help will get a better 8.4
out sooner.

--
Josh Berkus
PostgreSQL
San Francisco