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Updated on 2023-03-08 GMT+08:00

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Do I Need to Run VACUUM FULL and ANALYZE on Common Tables Periodically?

Yes.

For tables that are frequently added, deleted, or modified, you need to periodically perform VACUUM FULL and ANALYZE to reclaim the disk space occupied by updated or deleted data, preventing performance deterioration caused by data bloat and inaccurate statistics.

Generally, you are advised to perform ANALYZE after a large number of adding or modification operations are performed on a table.
After a table is deleted, you are advised to run VACUUM rather than VACUUM FULL. However, you can run VACUUM FULL in some particular cases, such as when you want to physically narrow a table to decrease the occupied disk space after deleting most rows of the table. For details about the differences between VACUUM and VACUUM FULL, see VACUUM and VACUUM FULL.

Syntax

Perform ANALYZE on a table.

ANALYZE table_name;

Perform ANALYZE on all tables (non-foreign tables) in the database.

ANALYZE;

Perform VACUUM on a table.

VACUUM table_name;

Perform VACUUM FULL on a table.

VACUUM FULL table_name;

For details, see in "VACUUM" and "ANALYZE | ANALYSE" in the Developer Guide.

If the physical space usage does not decrease after you run the VACUUM FULL command, check whether there were other active transactions (started before you delete data transactions and not ended before you run VACUUM FULL). If yes, run this command again when the transactions have finished.
In version 8.1.3 or later, VACUUM/VACUUM FULL can be invoked on the management plane. For details, see "Intelligent O&M" in the Data Warehouse Service User Guide.

VACUUM and VACUUM FULL

In GaussDB(DWS), the VACUUM operation is like a vacuum cleaner used to absorb dust. Here, "dust" means old data. If the data is not cleared in a timely manner, the database space will bloat, causing performance deterioration or even system breakdown.

Purposes of VACUUM:

Solve space bloat: Clear obsolete tuples and corresponding indexes, which include the tuple (and index) of a committed DELETE transaction, the old version (and index) of an UPDATE transaction, the inserted tuple (and index) of a rolled back INSERT transaction, the new version (and index) of an UPDATE transaction, and the tuple (and index) of a COPY transaction.
VACUUM FREEZE: Prevents system breakdown caused by transaction ID wraparound. It converts transaction IDs smaller than OldestXmin to freeze xids, update relfrozenxids in a table, and update relfrozenxids and truncate clogs in a database.
Update statistics: VACUUM ANALYZE updates statistics, enabling the optimizer to select a better way to execute SQL statements.

The VACUUM statement includes VACUUM and VACUUM FULL. Currently, VACUUM can only work on row-store tables. VACUUM FULL can be used to release space of column-store tables. For details, see the following table.

**Table 1** VACUUM and VACUUM FULL
Item	VACUUM	VACUUM FULL
Clearing space	If the deleted record is at the end of a table, the space occupied by the deleted record is physically released and returned to the operating system. If the data is not at the end of a table, the space occupied by dead tuples in the table or index is set to be available for reuse.	Despite the position of the deleted data, the space occupied by the data is physically released and returned to the operating system. When data is inserted, a new disk page is allocated.
Lock type	Shared lock. The VACUUM operation can be performed in parallel with other operations.	Exclusive lock. All operations based on the table are suspended during execution.
Physical space	Not released	Released
Transaction ID	Not reclaimed	Reclaimed
Execution overhead	The overhead is low and the operation can be executed periodically.	The overhead is high. You are advised to perform it when the disk page space occupied by the database is close to the threshold and the data operations are few.
Effect	It improves the efficiency of operations on the table.	It greatly improves the efficiency of operations on the table.