Re: [HACKERS] Block level parallel vacuum

On Thu, Nov 21, 2019 at 9:15 AM Amit Kapila <amit(dot)kapila16(at)gmail(dot)com> wrote:
>
> On Thu, Nov 21, 2019 at 6:53 AM Masahiko Sawada
> <masahiko(dot)sawada(at)2ndquadrant(dot)com> wrote:
> >
> > On Wed, 20 Nov 2019 at 20:36, Amit Kapila <amit(dot)kapila16(at)gmail(dot)com> wrote:
> > >
> > > On Wed, Nov 20, 2019 at 4:04 PM Masahiko Sawada
> > > <masahiko(dot)sawada(at)2ndquadrant(dot)com> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > On Wed, 20 Nov 2019 at 17:02, Amit Kapila <amit(dot)kapila16(at)gmail(dot)com> wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > On Wed, Nov 20, 2019 at 11:01 AM Masahiko Sawada
> > > > > <masahiko(dot)sawada(at)2ndquadrant(dot)com> wrote:
> > > > > >
> > > > > > I've attached the latest version patch set. The patch set includes all
> > > > > > discussed points regarding index AM options as well as shared cost
> > > > > > balance. Also I added some test cases used all types of index AM.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > During developments I had one concern about the number of parallel
> > > > > > workers to launch. In current design each index AMs can choose the
> > > > > > participation of parallel bulk-deletion and parallel cleanup. That
> > > > > > also means the number of parallel worker to launch might be different
> > > > > > for each time of parallel bulk-deletion and parallel cleanup. In
> > > > > > current patch the leader will always launch the number of indexes that
> > > > > > support either one but it would not be efficient in some cases. For
> > > > > > example, if we have 3 indexes supporting only parallel bulk-deletion
> > > > > > and 2 indexes supporting only parallel index cleanup, we would launch
> > > > > > 5 workers for each execution but some workers will do nothing at all.
> > > > > > To deal with this problem, I wonder if we can improve the parallel
> > > > > > query so that the leader process creates a parallel context with the
> > > > > > maximum number of indexes and can launch a part of workers instead of
> > > > > > all of them.
> > > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > Can't we choose the number of workers as a maximum of
> > > > > "num_of_indexes_that_support_bulk_del" and
> > > > > "num_of_indexes_that_support_cleanup"? If we can do that, then we can
> > > > > always launch the required number of workers for each phase (bulk_del,
> > > > > cleanup). In your above example, it should choose 3 workers while
> > > > > creating a parallel context. Do you see any problem with that?
> > > >
> > > > I might be missing something but if we create the parallel context
> > > > with 3 workers the leader process always launches 3 workers. Therefore
> > > > in the above case it launches 3 workers even in cleanup although 2
> > > > workers is enough.
> > > >
> > >
> > > Right, so we can either extend parallel API to launch fewer workers
> > > than it has in parallel context as suggested by you or we can use
> > > separate parallel context for each phase. Going with the earlier has
> > > the benefit that we don't need to recreate the parallel context and
> > > the latter has the advantage that we won't keep additional shared
> > > memory allocated.
> >
> > I also thought to use separate parallel contexts for each phase but
> > can the same DSM be used by parallel workers who initiated from
> > different parallel contexts? If not I think that doesn't work because
> > the parallel vacuum needs to set data to DSM of ambulkdelete and then
> > parallel workers for amvacuumcleanup needs to access it.
> >
>
> We can probably copy the stats in local memory instead of pointing it
> to dsm after bulk-deletion, but I think that would unnecessary
> overhead and doesn't sound like a good idea.

I agree that it will be unnecessary overhead.

>
> > > BTW, what kind of API change you have in mind for
> > > the approach you are suggesting?
> >
> > I was thinking to add a new API, say LaunchParallelNWorkers(pcxt, n),
> > where n is the number of workers the caller wants to launch and should
> > be lower than the value in the parallel context.
> >
>
> For that won't you need to duplicate most of the code of
> LaunchParallelWorkers or maybe move the entire code in
> LaunchParallelNWorkers and then LaunchParallelWorkers can also call
> it. Another idea could be to just extend the existing API
> LaunchParallelWorkers to take input parameter as the number of
> workers, do you see any problem with that or is there a reason you
> prefer to write a new API for this?

I think we can pass an extra parameter to LaunchParallelWorkers
therein we can try to launch min(pcxt->nworkers, n). Or we can put an
assert (n <= pcxt->nworkers).

--
Regards,
Dilip Kumar
EnterpriseDB: http://www.enterprisedb.com