Re: Swapping on Solaris

Alan Stange wrote:
>
> Note that files in /tmp are usually in a tmpfs file system. These
> files may be the usage of swap that you're seeing (as they will be paged
> out on an active system with some memory pressure)

You can do a couple things with /tmp. Create a separate file system
for it so it will have zero impact on swap and use the "noatime" mount
option. Alternatively, limit the size of /tmp using the mount option
"size=MBm" replacing "MB" with the size you want it to be in MBytes. If
your application uses /tmp heavily, be sure to put it on a speedy,
local LUN.

> Finally, just as everyone suggests upgrading to newer postgresql
> releases, you probably want to get to a newer Solaris release.

If you really want to avoid swapping I'd suggest tuning your database
first with swap turned off and put it under a "normal" load while
watching both top and vmstat. When you're happy with it, turn swap
back on for those "heavy" load times and move on.

Greg

--
Greg Spiegelberg
Product Development Manager
Cranel, Incorporated.
Phone: 614.318.4314
Fax: 614.431.8388
Email: gspiegelberg(at)cranel(dot)com
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