In our installation of the postgres 7.4.7, we are seeing a lot of the following postmaster processes (around 50) being spawned by the initial postmaster process once in a while: postgres 3977 1 1 Nov03 ? 15:11:38 /s/postgresql-7.4.7/bin/postmaster -D /scratch.1/postgres/condor-db-7.4.7 ...... postgres 31985 3977 0 10:08 ? 00:00:00 /s/postgresql-7.4.7/bin/postmaster -D /scratch.1/postgres/condor-db-7.4.7 postgres 31986 3977 0 10:08 ? 00:00:00 /s/postgresql-7.4.7/bin/postmaster -D /scratch.1/postgres/condor-db-7.4.7 postgres 31987 3977 0 10:08 ? 00:00:00 /s/postgresql-7.4.7/bin/postmaster -D /scratch.1/postgres/condor-db-7.4.7 postgres 31988 3977 0 10:08 ? 00:00:00 /s/postgresql-7.4.7/bin/postmaster -D /scratch.1/postgres/condor-db-7.4.7 ...... At the same time when these processes being spawned, sometimes there is also the checkpoint subprocess. I am not sure if that is related. The document doesn't provide any information. The other activity going on at the same time is a 'COPY' statement from a client application. These extra processes put a considerable load on the machine and cause it to hang up. Thanks, Ameet
