Re: Vacuum running out of memory

From: Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us>
To: Jonathan Foy <thefoy(at)gmail(dot)com>
Cc: pgsql-performance(at)postgresql(dot)org
Subject: Re: Vacuum running out of memory
Date: 2009-12-08 16:22:02
Message-ID: 12801.1260289322@sss.pgh.pa.us
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Jonathan Foy <thefoy(at)gmail(dot)com> writes:
> My vacuums have suddenly started to fail, seemingly at random. I am
> confused.

> I'm running 8.1.3, with close to a dozen servers, up to 150 databases each.
> I have 8GB of RAM. Vacuums have started to fail on all servers (though only
> the occasional vacuum) with the following error:

> VACUUM,ERROR: out of memory
> VACUUM,DETAIL: Failed on request of size 268435452

I'd back off maintenance_work_mem if I were you. I think you don't have
enough RAM to be running a lot of concurrent VACUUMs all with the same
large memory consumption.

Also, if it's really 8.1.3, consider an update to 8.1.something-recent.
Not only are you exposed to a number of very serious known bugs, but
this patch in particular would likely help you:
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-committers/2007-09/msg00377.php

regards, tom lane

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