[SunHELP] problem with pageouts when ram is free

[Alex Avriette]

I'm attempting to optimize the performance of a Postgres database running on
an Ultra 10 (440mhz). The benchmark I've set up is roughly creating 100,000
queries and simply executing them. The database postmaster takes about 90%
of the cpu, and chews up around 100mb of ram. However, when I watch vmstat,
I can see that pageouts are occurring when 190mb of physical ram is free
(this according to top(1)).

I'd really like to understand why this is happening. Is there a way I can
tune the kernel's timing of pageouts? I get the feeling what is happening
here is some kernel process is seeing drastic ram allocation happening, and
is creating some sort of 'buffer' in swap.

Thanks in advance.
alex

--
alex j. avriette
perl hacker.
a_avriette at acs.org
$dbh -> do('unhose');