Thread: A couple of questions...

I have a couple questions before I start a large project using postgres.I'm posting this to the hackers list because if
theanswer to any of
 
these questions is no, if somebody explains why, I would be glad to help
implement some features once I get into using it everyday.  So, here we go:

1)  How much data can postgres handle?  If I'm restricted by maximum
file size in the OS, can I segment the data file, and if so, how many times?

2)  Can I store the indexes for the database on a separate drive from
the data itself?  This is useful so that I can place the indexes on a
solid state disk for fast searching, and leave the data on traditional medium.

3) Is there a maximum number of records per table?  i.e., if I can
segment the data file, can I still only have 2 gigs of data per table?

-- 
Nick Bastin
RBB Systems, Inc.

> 1)  How much data can postgres handle?  If I'm restricted by maximum
> file size in the OS, can I segment the data file, and if so, how many times?

I vaguely recall that Postgres has support for segmented files, but that
it has not been reported to have been tested recently. You probably
can't count on it working, but try testing and see.

> 2)  Can I store the indexes for the database on a separate drive from
> the data itself?  This is useful so that I can place the indexes on a
> solid state disk for fast searching, and leave the data on traditional 
> medium.

Officially, no. If you have a fairly static database, you can create the
index, and then move it to another disk and create a soft link to it.
The Postgres server doesn't know about this directly, but can probably
be fooled.

> 3) Is there a maximum number of records per table?  i.e., if I can
> segment the data file, can I still only have 2 gigs of data per table?

Don't know. Sorry.
                   - Tom

On Mon, 2 Nov 1998, Thomas G. Lockhart wrote:

> > 1)  How much data can postgres handle?  If I'm restricted by maximum
> > file size in the OS, can I segment the data file, and if so, how many times?
> 
> I vaguely recall that Postgres has support for segmented files, but that
> it has not been reported to have been tested recently. You probably
> can't count on it working, but try testing and see.

I did start to test this about 2 weeks ago, but I hit problems way before
I got to that point. I'm in the middle of running the test again at the
moment.

> > 2)  Can I store the indexes for the database on a separate drive from
> > the data itself?  This is useful so that I can place the indexes on a
> > solid state disk for fast searching, and leave the data on traditional 
> > medium.
> 
> Officially, no. If you have a fairly static database, you can create the
> index, and then move it to another disk and create a soft link to it.
> The Postgres server doesn't know about this directly, but can probably
> be fooled.
> 
> > 3) Is there a maximum number of records per table?  i.e., if I can
> > segment the data file, can I still only have 2 gigs of data per table?
> 
> Don't know. Sorry.
> 
>                     - Tom
> 

--       Peter T Mount peter@retep.org.uk     Main Homepage: http://www.retep.org.uk
PostgreSQL JDBC Faq: http://www.retep.org.uk/postgresJava PDF Generator: http://www.retep.org.uk/pdf