Re: Optimzing Postgresql

On 5/24/08, Ram Ravichandran <ramkaka(at)gmail(dot)com> wrote:
> I am deciding between MySQL and Postgres. I'm leaning towards Postgres
> mainly due the widely publicized speed when using transactions. However, I
> am not able to find any good books / resources for tuning/ optimizing the
> database. Is there a book like "High Performance MySQL" for Postgres that
> teaches what the different parameters are and how to tune them?
> Or do most techniques covered in the High Performance Mysql apply to
> Postgres too?

There's no book, that I know, dedicated to tuning PostgreSQL
performance, but the PostgreSQL book by Korry Douglas has a big
section on tuning and statistics gathering:

http://www.amazon.com/PostgreSQL-Developers-Library-Korry-Douglas/dp/0672327562

There are plenty of overlaps between tuning PostgreSQL and tuning any
other database, such as using the right RAID setup to optimize I/O.
PostgreSQL has a bunch of parameters for controlling buffer sizes,
write-ahead logging, sort memory and so on. Here's a decent overview:

http://www.powerpostgresql.com/PerfList

When looking for material, make sure it's updated to the 8.x series,
which drastically changed the way PostgreSQL manages its cache
buffers.

Alexander.