How Do I Set an Upper Limit for the Storage Occupied by Temporary Files of My RDS for PostgreSQL Instance?

Parameter Description

The temp_file_limit parameter specifies the maximum amount of storage space that a PostgreSQL process can use for temporary files.

When SQL statements are executed, temporary files, such as sort files and hash files, are generated. Any transaction using temporary files whose total size exceeds this limit will be terminated. For details, see temp_file_limit.

Parameter Modification

You can modify temp_file_limit on the RDS console. For details, see Modifying Parameters of an RDS for PostgreSQL Instance.

Precautions

Executing SQL statements or backing up or restoring data will generate temporary files. If the total size of temporary files exceeds the value of temp_file_limit, the operation fails. The value of temp_file_limit should not be too small.

temp_file_limit can be set to –1, indicating no limit on the temporary file size. You are advised to avoid setting it to –1, as complex operations may generate a large number of temporary files that fill up the disk and cause workload unavailability. In most cases, keep the default value for temp_file_limit.