PostgreSQL Performance Tuning

[Frank Wiles]

On Tue, 28 Jun 2005 15:13:09 -0500 (CDT)
Don Erickson <derick at zeni.net> wrote:

> On Thu, 23 Jun 2005, Frank Wiles wrote:
> 
> >  Not sure how many people on this list use PostgreSQL, but I
> >  recently posted an article that helps gather the "generally
> >  accepted best practices" for tuning a PostgreSQL database.
> 
> Fascinating article, with lots of non-postgresql-specific db
> performance  tips as well.

  Thanks!
 
> I've never used postgresql, I've always used mysql.  At the time that
> I  made this decision, the "accepted wisdom" on OSS dbs seemed to be
> that  mysql was fastest and easiest to admin, but postgresql was
> safest  (transactions) and most featureful.  Since I didn't know
> anything about  databases anyway, I felt that the extra features would
> probably be wasted  on me, and speed never goes out of style.
> 
> Is this view still essentially true, or was it ever?  At the time
> mysql  was the most popular open source db and having to vacuum your
> database  seemed somehow suspect.  Not that "most popular" is so much
> of an  endorsement, I'm thinking here of a certain operating system.

  Actually MySQL was only faster when used in small settings doing
  simple SQL queries, but when people hear "faster" they tend to
  remember it for a long time. 

  Since PostgreSQL 7.x came out ( 8.x is current now ), PostgreSQL
  has been at least on par with MySQL and in many cases faster. 
  PosgreSQL simply blows MySQL out of the water if you have 5 or more
  concurrent connections whereas PostgreSQL easily scales to hundreds
  of connections without any noticable impact. 

 ---------------------------------
   Frank Wiles <frank at wiles.org>
   http://www.wiles.org
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