But what appears to be happening is that all of the data is being written out at the end of the checkpoint.This happens at every checkpoint while the system is under load.I get the feeling that this isn't the correct behavior and i've done something wrong.
It's not an actual checkpoints.
It's is a fsync after checkpoint which create write spikes hurting server.
You should set sysctl vm.dirty_background_bytes and vm.dirty_bytes to reasonable low values
(for 512MB raid controller with cache I would suggest to sometning like
vm.dirty_background_bytes = 33554432
vm.dirty_bytes = 268435456
32MB and 256MB respectively)
If youre server doesn't have raid with BBU cache - then you should tune these values to much lower values.
Please read http://blog.2ndquadrant.com/tuning_linux_for_low_postgresq/
and related posts.
--
Maxim Boguk
Senior Postgresql DBA.
http://www.postgresql-consulting.com/
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Phone AU: +61 45 218 5678
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