From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Oct 5 19:26:08 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DA44D16A47E for ; Thu, 5 Oct 2006 19:26:08 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from cswiger@mac.com) Received: from smtpout.mac.com (smtpout.mac.com [17.250.248.177]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B3E4043D77 for ; Thu, 5 Oct 2006 19:26:04 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from cswiger@mac.com) Received: from mac.com (smtpin07-en2 [10.13.10.152]) by smtpout.mac.com (Xserve/8.12.11/smtpout07/MantshX 4.0) with ESMTP id k95JQ4ZE021127; Thu, 5 Oct 2006 12:26:04 -0700 (PDT) Received: from [17.214.13.96] (a17-214-13-96.apple.com [17.214.13.96]) (authenticated bits=0) by mac.com (Xserve/smtpin07/MantshX 4.0) with ESMTP id k95JQ1s9014572; Thu, 5 Oct 2006 12:26:03 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <45255976.10903@squaretrade.com> References: <45254F1D.5000106@squaretrade.com> <45255976.10903@squaretrade.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v752.2) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed Message-Id: <219E170E-5622-4085-90EF-3E2784EFE0AB@mac.com> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit From: Chuck Swiger Date: Thu, 5 Oct 2006 12:26:00 -0700 To: Paul Lathrop X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.752.2) X-Brightmail-Tracker: AAAAAA== X-Brightmail-scanned: yes Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: PAE tuning X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 05 Oct 2006 19:26:08 -0000 On Oct 5, 2006, at 12:13 PM, Paul Lathrop wrote: >> You're supposed to tune the appropriate values considering the >> workload >> the machine is going to handle. "man tuning" has some additional >> information, but without describing what kind of tasks you plan to do >> with this machine with 14GB of RAM, nobody is going to be able to >> provide you with really specific advice... > > Good point. :-) > > I intend to deploy this system as a database server running Postgresql > 8.1. The database is huge (30-40Gb) and can easily grow (it has > gone as > high as 100Gb). I expect as many as 1000 concurrent database > connections > now, and a potential need for scaling this up later. You should tune the network stack settings towards LAN use (shorter timeouts, larger send & receive buffers); you should probably tune down the # of vnodes, adjust SysV shared memory as Postgres recommends: > I'm aware of the SystemV memory tuning issues related to running > Postgres on FreeBSD and I'll address those as soon as I can get the > system to see the RAM. > > I tried just installing the stock PAE kernel, but the system still > doesn't even acknowledge the RAM above 4Gb. Is this because I have not > yet performed the tuning? Update your BIOS and then check the settings; there may be an option explicitly for PAE, or you might find that tweaking something like "PCI memory reservation", "4GB memory hole", or "MTRR mapping" between the options will help make the extra memory appear. -- -Chuck