The following bug has been logged online:

Bug reference: 1806
Logged by:
Email address: m.krueger (AT) chs (DOT) de
PostgreSQL version: 7.4.8-0.6
Operating system: Suse Linux Enterprise Server 9
Description: Postmaster takes uses 99% of CPU
Details:

The Prozess Postmaster takes 99% of Cpu.

PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
20726 postgres 17 0 19996 5356 4216 R 98.3 0.3 26:36.56 postmaster
19956 postgres 19 0 19996 6148 4936 R 64.4 0.3 28:38.38 postmaster
20005 postgres 24 0 19996 6244 5068 R 23.6 0.3 36:25.35 postmaster
19955 postgres 22 0 20060 6364 5156 R 10.3 0.3 34:25.64 postmaster
20014 postgres 17 0 19992 5264 4136 R 5.6 0.3 15:17.95 postmaster
10454 tomcat 25 0 608m 426m 12m S 0.3 21.1 12:47.47 java

I have read all the Faq. But there is no reason to it.
Could you help?

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m.krueger (AT) chs (DOT) de wrote:
Is it doing anything?
Do your logs show any activity?
If you do "strace -p <pid>" as root, you'll see what system calls the
backend is making.

--
Richard Huxton
Archonet Ltd

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TIP 9: In versions below 8.0, the planner will ignore your desire to
choose an index scan if your joining column's datatypes do not
match

Mike Kr=FCger wrote:
No problem, just remember to hit "reply all" rather than "reply".

Not really (on Linux anyway). However, if other processes have useful=20
work to do and need CPU time, they will get their fair share. So - if PG=20
is running at 99% CPU (for long periods) that implies all other=20
processes are either waiting for PG to respond anyway, or are waiting=20
for disk/network etc.

The system shouldn't feel "slow" or "unresponsive" just because one=20
process is busy. If it does, that might imply swap is being used, or=20
network or disk activity is at a maximum.

General system admin is too large a subject to deal with here, but the=20
tools to check documentation for are: top/free/vmstat/iostat/netstat

Oh - and make sure your configuration settings are reasonable. Read=20
these two performance-tuning guides:
http://www.varlena.com/varlena/Gener...bits/index.php
http://www.powerpostgresql.com/PerfList

HTH
--
Richard Huxton
Archonet Ltd


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