Tom, Thanks for your reply. > [...] > > UID PID D BLOCK SIZE COMM PATHNAME > > 103 687 W 120384 98304 postgres > > /export/data/pgsql/data/global/pgstat.tmp.687 > > Hmm. That's the stats collector creating a new current-stats file, > which it does every half second or so. I take it that the file gets renamed almost immediately because we can also see writes to the parent directory -- but never see the file itself using ls. We can probably turn the stats collection off but it does help diagnose certain classes of production problem. Will turn it off on one of the servers and see what happens. I'm starting to think maybe we need to tune the memory parameters. There's also a lot of writing to files that look like this: /export/data/pgsql/data/base/64920741/pgsql_tmp/pgsql_tmp966.9 What are these files used for? In this particular sample, that file was being written to a lot. Perhaps we're running out of memory for some sorting? We've dialled the logging down a little so we're not logging pid's and statements to see what query that backend is doing. Thanks again. Dan -- Confidential: This email is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed. The information contained in this email may be confidential and privileged. Any retransmission, review, dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon, this information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited. If you received this email in error, please let us know by reply and destroy all copies of it. Thank you.
