Limit on number of databases in a Cluster ?

Started by Josh Harrisonover 17 years ago5 messagesgeneral
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#1Josh Harrison
joshques@gmail.com

Hi,

1. Is there a limit on the number of databases that can be in a single
postgres cluster?
2. Is there any performance impacts associated with having too many
databases in a cluster?
3. Is there a good magical number for this limit ?

Thanks
Josh

#2Scott Marlowe
scott.marlowe@gmail.com
In reply to: Josh Harrison (#1)
Re: Limit on number of databases in a Cluster ?

On Wed, Dec 3, 2008 at 8:43 AM, Josh Harrison <joshques@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi,

1. Is there a limit on the number of databases that can be in a single
postgres cluster?

No. I'm sure there's a practical limit into the thousands where
things start to get slower.

2. Is there any performance impacts associated with having too many
databases in a cluster?

Define too many. I've run a couple hundred before without it being a problem.

3. Is there a good magical number for this limit ?

Only the one that your testing tells you there is. Got a rough guess
of how many you want to run? How busy they'll be? that kind of
thing.

#3Josh Harrison
joshques@gmail.com
In reply to: Scott Marlowe (#2)
Re: Limit on number of databases in a Cluster ?

On Wed, Dec 3, 2008 at 11:51 AM, Scott Marlowe <scott.marlowe@gmail.com>wrote:

On Wed, Dec 3, 2008 at 8:43 AM, Josh Harrison <joshques@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi,

1. Is there a limit on the number of databases that can be in a single
postgres cluster?

No. I'm sure there's a practical limit into the thousands where
things start to get slower.

2. Is there any performance impacts associated with having too many
databases in a cluster?

Define too many. I've run a couple hundred before without it being a
problem.

3. Is there a good magical number for this limit ?

Only the one that your testing tells you there is. Got a rough guess
of how many you want to run? How busy they'll be? that kind of
thing.

About 10-15 ?

#4Scott Marlowe
scott.marlowe@gmail.com
In reply to: Josh Harrison (#3)
Re: Limit on number of databases in a Cluster ?

On Wed, Dec 3, 2008 at 11:05 AM, Josh Harrison <joshques@gmail.com> wrote:

On Wed, Dec 3, 2008 at 11:51 AM, Scott Marlowe <scott.marlowe@gmail.com>
wrote:

On Wed, Dec 3, 2008 at 8:43 AM, Josh Harrison <joshques@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi,

1. Is there a limit on the number of databases that can be in a single
postgres cluster?

No. I'm sure there's a practical limit into the thousands where
things start to get slower.

2. Is there any performance impacts associated with having too many
databases in a cluster?

Define too many. I've run a couple hundred before without it being a
problem.

3. Is there a good magical number for this limit ?

Only the one that your testing tells you there is. Got a rough guess
of how many you want to run? How busy they'll be? that kind of
thing.

About 10-15 ?

That's hardly any really. At that point it's more about whether or
not your server can support all the users / access going on at once.
15 or 1 db in the cluster, if you've got 200 users hitting it hard
you'll need a big server. OTOH, 100 dbs in a cluster with a dozen or
fewer average users is just fine.

#5Robert Treat
xzilla@users.sourceforge.net
In reply to: Scott Marlowe (#4)
Re: Limit on number of databases in a Cluster ?

On Wednesday 03 December 2008 23:49:00 Scott Marlowe wrote:

On Wed, Dec 3, 2008 at 11:05 AM, Josh Harrison <joshques@gmail.com> wrote:

On Wed, Dec 3, 2008 at 11:51 AM, Scott Marlowe <scott.marlowe@gmail.com>

wrote:

On Wed, Dec 3, 2008 at 8:43 AM, Josh Harrison <joshques@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi,

1. Is there a limit on the number of databases that can be in a single
postgres cluster?

No. I'm sure there's a practical limit into the thousands where
things start to get slower.

2. Is there any performance impacts associated with having too many
databases in a cluster?

Define too many. I've run a couple hundred before without it being a
problem.

3. Is there a good magical number for this limit ?

Only the one that your testing tells you there is. Got a rough guess
of how many you want to run? How busy they'll be? that kind of
thing.

About 10-15 ?

That's hardly any really. At that point it's more about whether or
not your server can support all the users / access going on at once.
15 or 1 db in the cluster, if you've got 200 users hitting it hard
you'll need a big server. OTOH, 100 dbs in a cluster with a dozen or
fewer average users is just fine.

Right. This becomes most important when you tune postgresql.conf parameters,
which will apply cluster wide so need to be calculated across all databases.
The fsm settings are a good example (tracking pages across all databases),
but also things like work_mem need to account for all connections to all
databases when you think about how high you can set these. Don't forget some
of these settings (like work_mem) can be set per database using the ALTER
DATABASE command, just be careful becuase the support for backing up those
changes is spotty at best.

--
Robert Treat
Conjecture: http://www.xzilla.net
Consulting: http://www.omniti.com