David Crane wrote: > We've had our PostgreSQL 8.1.4 installation configured to autovacuum > since January, but I suspect it might not be doing anything. Perhaps I > can determine what happens through the log files? Is there a summary of > which "when to log" settings in postgresql.conf should be set to get at > least table-level messages about yes/no decisions? The only message I > see now is very terse, indicating that autovacuum does run: Yeah, you have to set log_min_messages to debug2 to get useful output for autovacuum. This is fixed in 8.3, but for earlier version there is nothing short of patching the server. > autovacuum = on > > autovacuum_naptime = 360 This is a bit on the high side, but it may not be very important. Keep in mind that in 8.2 and earlier, it means "how long between autovac checks", so if there are many databases, it could be long before one autovac run in a particular database and the next one. (In 8.3 it has been redefined to mean the interval between runs on every database). > autovacuum_vacuum_threshold = 1000 > autovacuum_analyze_threshold = 500 These are the default values but for small tables they seem high as well. IIRC your problem is actually with big tables, for which it doesn't make much of a difference. -- Alvaro Herrera http://www.CommandPrompt.com/ PostgreSQL Replication, Consulting, Custom Development, 24x7 support ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 2: Don't 'kill -9' the postmaster