Re: Linux kernel impact on PostgreSQL performance

Josh Berkus <josh(at)agliodbs(dot)com> wrote:

>> Does the PostgreSQL community have a problem with recent
>> kernels, particularly with respect to the storage, filesystem or
>> memory management layers?

> How about "don't add major IO behavior changes with no
> backwards-compatibility switches"?  ;-)

I notice, Josh, that you didn't mention the problems many people
have run into with Transparent Huge Page defrag and with NUMA
access.  Is that because there *are* configuration options that
allow people to get decent performance once the issue is diagnosed?
It seems like maybe there could be a better way to give a heads-up
on hazards in a new kernel to the database world, but I don't know
quite what that would be.  For all I know, it is already available
if you know where to look.

> Seriously, one thing I'd like to get out of Collab would be a
> reasonable regimen for testing database performance on Linux
> kernels.

... or perhaps you figure this is what would bring such issues to
the community's attention before people are bitten in production
environments?

--
Kevin Grittner
EDB: http://www.enterprisedb.com
The Enterprise PostgreSQL Company