On Tue, May 02, 2006 at 05:47:15PM -0400, Chris Mckenzie wrote: > I've come to the conclusion I need to simply start tracking all transactions > and determining a cost/performance for the larger and frequently updated > tables without the benefit and penalty of pg_statio. I'll bet it won't help you. If you can't get off 7.4 on a busy machine, you're going to get hosed by I/O sometimes no matter what. My suggestion is to write a bunch of rule-of-thumb rules for your cron jobs, and start planning your upgrade. Jan back-patched the vacuum stuff to 7.4 for us (Afilias), and we tried playing with it; but it didn't really make the difference we'd hoped. The reason for this is that 7.4 also doesn't have the bg_writer. So you're still faced with I/O storms, no matter what you do. If I were in your shoes, I wouldn't waste a lot of time on trying to emulate the new features in 7.4. A -- Andrew Sullivan | ajs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx In the future this spectacle of the middle classes shocking the avant- garde will probably become the textbook definition of Postmodernism. --Brad Holland