Thanks for the prompt reply, if I'm totally honest I'm not 100% sure the postgres install has built correctly into a 64-bit build. I found it really difficult to find any documentation on how to configure Postgres correctly for a 64-bit install onto an AIX system. The only pieces of information I found where from this forum and off the back of that I configured postgres with the following settings. BINDIR = /usr/local/pgsql837-64/bin DOCDIR = /usr/local/pgsql837-64/doc INCLUDEDIR = /usr/local/pgsql837-64/include PKGINCLUDEDIR = /usr/local/pgsql837-64/include INCLUDEDIR-SERVER = /usr/local/pgsql837-64/include/server LIBDIR = /usr/local/pgsql837-64/lib PKGLIBDIR = /usr/local/pgsql837-64/lib LOCALEDIR = MANDIR = /usr/local/pgsql837-64/man SHAREDIR = /usr/local/pgsql837-64/share SYSCONFDIR = /usr/local/pgsql837-64/etc PGXS = /usr/local/pgsql837-64/lib/pgxs/src/makefiles/pgxs.mk CONFIGURE = '--prefix=/usr/local/pgsql837-64' '--with-pgport=5422' '--enable-thr ead-safety' '--enable-integer-datetimes' 'CC=gcc -maix64' 'LDFLAGS=-Wl,-bbigtoc' CC = gcc -maix64 CPPFLAGS = CFLAGS = -O2 -Wall -Wmissing-prototypes -Wpointer-arith -Winline -Wdeclaration-a fter-statement -Wendif-labels -fno-strict-aliasing -fwrapv CFLAGS_SL = LDFLAGS = -Wl,-bbigtoc -Wl,-blibpath:/usr/local/pgsql837-64/lib:/usr/lib:/lib LDFLAGS_SL = -Wl,-bnoentry -Wl,-H512 -Wl,-bM:SRE LIBS = -lpgport -lz -lreadline -lld -lm VERSION = PostgreSQL 8.3.7 After this I configured the ulimit for the postgres user to the following so that it had unlimited memory access core file size (blocks, -c) 1048575 data seg size (kbytes, -d) 131072 file size (blocks, -f) unlimited max memory size (kbytes, -m) unlimited open files (-n) 2000 pipe size (512 bytes, -p) 64 stack size (kbytes, -s) 32768 cpu time (seconds, -t) unlimited max user processes (-u) 2048 virtual memory (kbytes, -v) unlimited The version of postgres that we are running is 8.3.7. If you can see an obvious step that I have missed out or something I haven't configured incorrectly I would be grateful if you could let me know. Our install isnt really using temp tables as far as I can see Thanks again for all your help Fran -----Original Message----- From: Brad Nicholson [mailto:bnichols@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] Sent: 16 February 2010 15:21 To: Kenneth Marshall Cc: Tom Lane; Thorne, Francis; pgsql-admin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: Re: AIX - Out of Memory On Mon, 2010-02-15 at 10:18 -0600, Kenneth Marshall wrote: > On Mon, Feb 15, 2010 at 10:57:06AM -0500, Tom Lane wrote: > > "Thorne, Francis" <thornef@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes: > > > Looking for some help with regards to an 'Out of Memory' issue I have > > > with our Postgresql install on AIX. When running large updates or > > > select queries we get an out of memory error returned and details > > > entered in the log file like below. This is a 64-bit install and I have > > > set the ulimit for the postgres user to unlimited. > > > > The bloat seems to be here: > > > > > AfterTriggerEvents: 131063808 total in 26 blocks; 576 free (7 > > > chunks); 131063232 used > > > > but it's hard to believe you'd be getting "out of memory" after only > > 130MB in a 64-bit build. Are you *sure* the postgres executable is > > 64-bit? Are you *sure* the postmaster has been launched with > > nonrestrictive ulimit? On lots of setups that takes modifying the > > PG startup script, not just fooling with some user's .profile. > > > > > This is a 64-bit install (8.3) on AIX 5.3 > > > > 8.3.what? > > > > regards, tom lane > > I no longer have an AIX box, but I had similar problems with other > applications that needed large amounts of memory. Some OS specific > steps needed to be taken to allow normal users to allocate large > blocks of memory. The information needed was in their on-line docs > as I recall, but I do not remember the details. The executables may > need to be built with specific options/flags to work. > AIX has other limits besides the ulimit, there for security purposes I believe. 2GB per process is the default. To OP - what is the size of the postgres process? Are you using temp tables heavily or frequently in a given session? I've seen the same issue on AIX before (64 bit build) reporting out of memory on trivial request size. The issue was due to the use of temp tables in a single session. PG does not release the memory for the temp tables until the session ends. The postgres process grows up the the 2GB mark, then the final trivial request pushes it over the tipping point, and you get the out of memory error. -- Brad Nicholson 416-673-4106 Database Administrator, Afilias Canada Corp. ___________________________________________________ This email is intended for the named recipient. 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