Two postgresql server with same configuration, different performance - postgresql

Question

I got two identical servers, in both is installed postgresql server version 9.0.4 with the same configuration. If I launch a .sql file that performs about 5k inserts, on the first one it takes a couple of seconds, on the second one it takes 1 minute and 30 seconds.
If I set synchronous_commit, speed dramatically reduces (as expected), and the performances of the two servers are comparable. But if I set synchronous_commit to on, on one server the insert script execution time increases of less than one second, on the other one it increases too much, as I said in the first period.
Any idea about this difference in performances? Am I missing some configuration?
Update: tried a simple disk test: time sh -c "dd if=/dev/zero of=ddfile bs=8k count=200000 && sync"
fast server output:
1638400000 bytes (1.6 GB) copied, 1.73537 seconds, 944 MB/s
real 0m32.009s
user 0m0.018s
sys 0m2.298s
slow server output:
1638400000 bytes (1.6 GB) copied, 4.85727 s, 337 MB/s
real 0m35.045s
user 0m0.019s
sys 0m2.221s
Common features (both servers):
SATA, RAID1, controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) SATA AHCI Controller, distribution: linux centOS. mount -v output:
/dev/md2 on / type ext3 (rw)
proc on /proc type proc (rw)
none on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)
/dev/md1 on /boot type ext3 (rw)
fast server: kernel 2.6.18-238.9.1.el5 #1 SMP
Disk /dev/sda: 750.1 GB, 750156374016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 91201 cylinders, total 1465149168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 3906 4209029 2102562 fd Linux raid autodetect
/dev/sda2 4209030 4739174 265072+ fd Linux raid autodetect
/dev/sda3 4739175 1465144064 730202445 fd Linux raid autodetect
slow server: kernel 2.6.32-71.29.1.el6.x86_64 #1 SMP
Disk /dev/sda: 750.2 GB, 750156374016 bytes
64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 715404 cylinders, total 1465149168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0006ffc4
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 2048 4194303 2096128 fd Linux raid autodetect
/dev/sda2 4194304 5242879 524288 fd Linux raid autodetect
/dev/sda3 5242880 1465147391 729952256 fd Linux raid autodetect
Could it be useful to address the performance issue?

Answer 1

I suppose your slow server with newer kernel has working barriers. This is good, as otherwise you can loose data in case of a power failure. But it is of course slower than running with write cache enabled and without barriers, aka running with scissors.
You can check if barriers are enabled using mount -v — search for barrier=1 in output. You can disable barriers for your filesystem (mount -o remount,barrier=0 /) to speed up, but then you risk data corruption.
Try to do your 5k inserts in one transaction — Postgres won't have to write to disk on every row inserted. The theoretical limit for number of transactions per second wound be comparable to disk rotational speed (7200rpm disk ≈ 7200/60 tps = 120 tps) as a disk can only write to a sector once per rotation.

Answer 2

To me this sounds like in the "fast" server there is a write cache enbled for the harddisk(s), whereas in the slow server the harddisk(s) are really writing the data when PG writes it (by calling fsync)