Update wal files computation documentation.

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Bruce Momjian 2002-02-11 23:25:14 +00:00
parent 028e13bc08
commit 0ae55405de

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<!-- $Header: /cvsroot/pgsql/doc/src/sgml/wal.sgml,v 1.14 2001/11/28 20:49:10 petere Exp $ -->
<!-- $Header: /cvsroot/pgsql/doc/src/sgml/wal.sgml,v 1.15 2002/02/11 23:25:14 momjian Exp $ -->
<chapter id="wal">
<title>Write-Ahead Logging (<acronym>WAL</acronym>)</title>
@ -70,8 +70,8 @@
Problems with indexes (problems 1 and 2) could possibly have been
fixed by additional <function>fsync()</function> calls, but it is
not obvious how to handle the last case without
<acronym>WAL</acronym>; <acronym>WAL</acronym> saves the entire
data page content in the log if that is required to ensure page
<acronym>WAL</acronym>; <acronym>WAL</acronym> saves the entire data
page content in the log if that is required to ensure page
consistency for after-crash recovery.
</para>
</sect2>
@ -85,11 +85,11 @@
made by aborted transactions will still occupy disk space and that
we still need a permanent <filename>pg_clog</filename> file to hold
the status of transactions, since we are not able to re-use
transaction identifiers. Once UNDO is implemented,
transaction identifiers. Once UNDO is implemented,
<filename>pg_clog</filename> will no longer be required to be
permanent; it will be possible to remove
<filename>pg_clog</filename> at shutdown. (However, the urgency
of this concern has decreased greatly with the adoption of a segmented
<filename>pg_clog</filename> at shutdown. (However, the urgency of
this concern has decreased greatly with the adoption of a segmented
storage method for <filename>pg_clog</filename> --- it is no longer
necessary to keep old <filename>pg_clog</filename> entries around
forever.)
@ -121,15 +121,15 @@
</para>
<para>
A difficulty standing in the way of realizing these benefits is that they
require saving <acronym>WAL</acronym> entries for considerable periods
of time (eg, as long as the longest possible transaction if transaction
UNDO is wanted). The present <acronym>WAL</acronym> format is
extremely bulky since it includes many disk page snapshots.
This is not a serious concern at present, since the entries only need
to be kept for one or two checkpoint intervals; but to achieve
these future benefits some sort of compressed <acronym>WAL</acronym>
format will be needed.
A difficulty standing in the way of realizing these benefits is that
they require saving <acronym>WAL</acronym> entries for considerable
periods of time (eg, as long as the longest possible transaction if
transaction UNDO is wanted). The present <acronym>WAL</acronym>
format is extremely bulky since it includes many disk page
snapshots. This is not a serious concern at present, since the
entries only need to be kept for one or two checkpoint intervals;
but to achieve these future benefits some sort of compressed
<acronym>WAL</acronym> format will be needed.
</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>
@ -244,9 +244,10 @@
not occur often enough to prevent <acronym>WAL</acronym> buffers
being written by <function>LogInsert</function>. On such systems
one should increase the number of <acronym>WAL</acronym> buffers by
modifying the <varname>WAL_BUFFERS</varname> parameter. The default
number of <acronym>WAL</acronym> buffers is 8. Increasing this
value will correspondingly increase shared memory usage.
modifying the <filename>postgresql.conf</filename> <varname>
WAL_BUFFERS</varname> parameter. The default number of <acronym>
WAL</acronym> buffers is 8. Increasing this value will
correspondingly increase shared memory usage.
</para>
<para>
@ -293,31 +294,33 @@
<para>
Reducing <varname>CHECKPOINT_SEGMENTS</varname> and/or
<varname>CHECKPOINT_TIMEOUT</varname> causes checkpoints to be
done more often. This allows faster after-crash recovery (since
less work will need to be redone). However, one must balance this against
the increased cost of flushing dirty data pages more often. In addition,
to ensure data page consistency, the first modification of a data page
after each checkpoint results in logging the entire page content.
Thus a smaller checkpoint interval increases the volume of output to
the log, partially negating the goal of using a smaller interval, and
in any case causing more disk I/O.
<varname>CHECKPOINT_TIMEOUT</varname> causes checkpoints to be done
more often. This allows faster after-crash recovery (since less work
will need to be redone). However, one must balance this against the
increased cost of flushing dirty data pages more often. In addition,
to ensure data page consistency, the first modification of a data
page after each checkpoint results in logging the entire page
content. Thus a smaller checkpoint interval increases the volume of
output to the log, partially negating the goal of using a smaller
interval, and in any case causing more disk I/O.
</para>
<para>
The number of 16MB segment files will always be at least
<varname>WAL_FILES</varname> + 1, and will normally not exceed
<varname>WAL_FILES</varname> + 2 * <varname>CHECKPOINT_SEGMENTS</varname>
+ 1. This may be used to estimate space requirements for WAL. Ordinarily,
when an old log segment file is no longer needed, it is recycled (renamed
to become the next sequential future segment). If, due to a short-term
peak of log output rate, there are more than <varname>WAL_FILES</varname> +
2 * <varname>CHECKPOINT_SEGMENTS</varname> + 1 segment files, then unneeded
segment files will be deleted instead of recycled until the system gets
back under this limit. (If this happens on a regular basis,
<varname>WAL_FILES</varname> should be increased to avoid it. Deleting log
segments that will only have to be created again later is expensive and
pointless.)
<varname>WAL_FILES</varname> + MAX(<varname>WAL_FILES</varname>,
<varname>CHECKPOINT_SEGMENTS</varname>) + 1. This may be used to
estimate space requirements for WAL. Ordinarily, when an old log
segment files are no longer needed, they are recycled (renamed to
become the next sequential future segments). If, due to a short-term
peak of log output rate, there are more than
<varname>WAL_FILES</varname> + MAX(<varname>WAL_FILES</varname>,
<varname>CHECKPOINT_SEGMENTS</varname>) + 1 segment files, then
unneeded segment files will be deleted instead of recycled until the
system gets back under this limit. (If this happens on a regular
basis, <varname>WAL_FILES</varname> should be increased to avoid it.
Deleting log segments that will only have to be created again later
is expensive and pointless.)
</para>
<para>