FW: BTP_CHAIN flag was expected

PG_VERSION v6.3, FreeBSD 3.0-971031-SNAP

The 'before and after' file lists below show a fifty percent
increase in the size of user account during the course of one
day.
Since the database is around 300,000 records we might assume that
the
increase reflects about 150,000 added records. We are averaging
about
25,000 completed transactions to acct_history each day. This
data
suggests about six updates to user_acct for each update to
acct_history which is about what we expect.

What we don't expect is for our user_acct to grow (so much!) in
size
with simple updates.

We also don't expect 'btree: BTP_CHAIN flag was expected'
errors to
be popping up. We have seen btree errors in both acct_history
and
user_acct. acct_history_acct_no_idx is non-unique,
user_acct_card_no_idx is unique, the other user_acct indexes are
non-unique. All indexes are btree.

We did not see these errors until the tables grew over 80 Meg.

In acct_history we are doing inserts only. In user_acct we are

doing updates only.

I estimate, at peak load, we are processing an average of five
transactions per second to user_acct. Spikes would probably go
as
high as 15-20 trans per second. On acct_history it would be more
like
one transaction per second. user_acct occurences outnumber
acct_history 5:1.

Also notice the indices grew *after* reindexing and vacuuming.
We
did add 5000 cards today but aren't the indices suppposed to
update on
insert?

We'd like to solve two problems here:

1. BTP_CHAIN errors cause system crash during peak traffic.
2. Table sizes grow too much in short period of time.

Best Regards,

-Dave

David Schanen : Atlas Telecom : mtv@scene.com

---------- Before Reindex and Vacuum ---------

pgsql 176611328 May 6 02:13 acct_history
pgsql 55787520 May 6 02:13 acct_history_acct_no_idx
pgsql 120594432 May 6 02:17 user_acct
pgsql 22855680 May 6 02:17 user_acct_acct_no_idx
pgsql 31547392 May 6 02:17 user_acct_card_acct_sim_idx
pgsql 15908864 May 6 02:17 user_acct_card_no_idx
pgsql 9986048 May 6 02:17 user_acct_serial_no_idx
pgsql 12328960 May 6 02:17 user_acct_sim_idx
pgsql 8192 May 6 02:13 user_acct_state
pgsql 16384 May 2 03:00 user_acct_state_state_idx

---------- After Reindex and Vacuum ---------

pgsql 176611328 May 6 02:13 acct_history
pgsql 55787520 May 6 02:13 acct_history_acct_no_idx
pgsql 81649664 May 6 02:41 user_acct
pgsql 29327360 May 6 02:41 user_acct_acct_no_idx
pgsql 45195264 May 6 02:41 user_acct_card_acct_sim_idx
pgsql 18595840 May 6 02:41 user_acct_card_no_idx
pgsql 15212544 May 6 02:41 user_acct_serial_no_idx
pgsql 12566528 May 6 02:41 user_acct_sim_idx
pgsql 8192 May 6 02:13 user_acct_state
pgsql 16384 May 2 03:00 user_acct_state_state_idx