Updated on 2023-12-29 GMT+08:00

Automatic Cleanup

The automatic cleanup process (autovacuum) in the system automatically runs the VACUUM and ANALYZE statements to reclaim the record space marked as deleted and update statistics about the table.

autovacuum

Parameter description: Specifies whether to start the automatic cleanup process (autovacuum). Ensure that the track_counts parameter is set to on before enabling the automatic cleanup process.

For clusters of 8.1.3 or later, the automatic cleanup function can be performed on the management console. For details, see Intelligent O&M Overview. For clusters of 8.1.2 or earlier, configure GUC parameters according to Configuring GUC Parameters.

Type: SIGHUP

Value range: Boolean

  • on indicates the database automatic cleanup process is enabled.
  • off indicates that the database automatic cleanup process is disabled.

Default value: on

Set autovacuum to on if you want to enable the function of automatically cleaning up two-phase transactions after the system recovers from faults.
  • If autovacuum is set to on and autovacuum_max_workers to 0, the autovacuum process will not be automatically performed and only abnormal two-phase transactions are cleaned up after the system recovers from faults.
  • If autovacuum is set to on and the value of autovacuum_max_workers is greater than 0, the system will automatically clean up two-phase transactions and processes after recovering from faults.
Even if this parameter is set to off, the database initiates a cleanup process when transaction ID wraparound needs to be prevented. When a CREATE DATABASE or DROP DATABASE operation fails, the transaction may have been committed or rolled back on some nodes whereas some nodes are still in the prepared state. In this case, perform the following operations to manually restore the nodes:
  1. Use the gs_clean tool (setting the option parameter to -N) to query the xid of the abnormal two-phase transaction and nodes in the prepared status.
  2. Log in to the nodes whose transactions are in the prepared status. Administrators connect to an available database such as gaussdb to run the SET xc_maintenance_mode = on statement.
  3. Commit or roll back the two-phase transaction based on the global transaction status.

autovacuum_mode

Parameter description: Specifies whether the autoanalyze or autovacuum function is enabled. This parameter is valid only when autovacuum is set to on.

Type: SIGHUP

Value range: enumerated values

  • analyze indicates that only autoanalyze is performed.
  • vacuum indicates that only autovacuum is performed.
  • mix indicates that both autoanalyze and autovacuum are performed.
  • none indicates that neither of them is performed.

Default value: mix

autoanalyze_timeout

Parameter description: Specifies the timeout period of autoanalyze. If the duration of analyze on a table exceeds the value of autoanalyze_timeout, analyze is automatically canceled.

Type: SIGHUP

Value range: an integer ranging from 0 to 2147483. The unit is second.

Default value: 5min

autovacuum_io_limits

Parameter description: Specifies the upper limit of I/Os triggered by the autovacuum process per second. This parameter has been discarded in version 8.1.2 and is reserved for compatibility with earlier versions. This parameter is invalid in the current version.

Type: SIGHUP

Value range: an integer ranging from –1 to 1073741823. –1 indicates that the default Cgroup is used.

Default value: –1

autovacuum_max_workers

Parameter description: Specifies the maximum number of automatic cleanup threads running at the same time.

Type: SIGHUP

Value range: an integer ranging from 0 to 128. 0 indicates that autovacuum is disabled.

Default value: 3

  • This parameter works with autovacuum. The rules for clearing system catalogs and user tables are as follows:
    • When autovacuum_max_workers is set to 0, autovacuum is disabled and no tables are cleared.
    • If autovacuum_max_workers > 0 and autovacuum = off are configured, the system only clears the system catalogs and column-store tables with delta tables enabled (such as vacuum delta tables, vacuum cudesc tables, and delta merge).
    • If autovacuum_max_workers > 0 and autovacuum = on are configured, all tables are cleared.
  • In 8.1.3, column-store primary tables are not cleared by default. You need to set the colvacuum_threshold_scale_factor parameter to enable this function.

autovacuum_naptime

Parameter description: Specifies the interval between two automatic cleanup operations.

Type: SIGHUP

Value range: an integer ranging from 1 to 2147483. The unit is second.

Default value: 60s

autovacuum_vacuum_threshold

Parameter description: Specifies the threshold for triggering the VACUUM operation. When the number of deleted or updated records in a table exceeds the specified threshold, the VACUUM operation is executed on this table.

Type: SIGHUP

Value range: an integer ranging from 0 to INT_MAX

Default value: 50

autovacuum_analyze_threshold

Parameter description: Specifies the threshold for triggering the ANALYZE operation. When the number of deleted, inserted, or updated records in a table exceeds the specified threshold, the ANALYZE operation is executed on this table.

Type: SIGHUP

Value range: an integer ranging from 0 to INT_MAX

Default value:

  • If the current cluster is upgraded from an earlier version to 8.1.3, the default value is 10000 to ensure forward compatibility.
  • If the current cluster version is 8.1.3, the default value is 50.

autovacuum_vacuum_scale_factor

Parameter description: Specifies the size scaling factor of a table added to the autovacuum_vacuum_threshold parameter when a VACUUM event is triggered.

Type: SIGHUP

Value range: a floating point number ranging from 0.0 to 100.0

Default value: 0.2

autovacuum_analyze_scale_factor

Parameter description: Specifies the size scaling factor of a table added to the autovacuum_analyze_threshold parameter when an ANALYZE event is triggered.

Type: SIGHUP

Value range: a floating point number ranging from 0.0 to 100.0

Default value:

  • If the current cluster is upgraded from an earlier version to 8.1.3, the default value is 0.25 to ensure forward compatibility.
  • If the current cluster version is 8.1.3, the default value is 0.1.

autovacuum_freeze_max_age

Parameter description: Specifies the maximum age (in transactions) that a table's pg_class.relfrozenxid column can attain before a VACUUM operation is forced to prevent transaction ID wraparound within the table.

The old files under the subdirectory of pg_clog/ can also be deleted by the VACUUM operation. Even if the automatic cleanup process is forbidden, the system will invoke the automatic cleanup process to prevent the cyclic repetition.

Type: SIGHUP

Value range: an integer ranging from 100000 to 576460752303423487

Default value: 4000000000

autovacuum_vacuum_cost_delay

Parameter description: Specifies the value of the cost delay used in the autovacuum operation.

Type: SIGHUP

Value range: an integer ranging from –1 to 100. The unit is ms. -1 indicates that the normal vacuum cost delay is used.

Default value: 2ms

autovacuum_vacuum_cost_limit

Parameter description: Specifies the value of the cost limit used in the autovacuum operation.

Type: SIGHUP

Value range: an integer ranging from –1 to 10000. -1 indicates that the normal vacuum cost limit is used.

Default value: –1