Persistant Connections problems pgsql

Anon

Running a php-based web application using pgsql backend database--seems that once the slightest load is placed on the application, multiple pgsql processes are spawned--and all queries to the database become extremely time consuming. Occassionally the pgsql server crashes, and or the end user recieves errors indicating that the pgsql server is unable to respond to the database query, etc.
Is this a known issue--and or will an upgrade to the latest version of pgsql or latest CVS of php solve the issue?

Seems that the problem may have started once the Zend optimizer was installed into the PHP distribution--and even upon it's uninstall, the latency of SQL queries is insane. Attempted re-install and compile of pgsql, also recompiled Apache with the php module to see if this would solve the issue. Doubt it's related to the system's hardware--is a fairly powerful box, that should be able to handle the light load that will be placed on it.

--Brandon

toma42

Are you using indexes? Are you sure your database design is solid? How much memory does your db server have? Is the db server on the web server?

Anon

To add to tom's questions, what versions of linux, apache & postgresql running?

Anon

Doubt the DB design is a factor, as this problem seems to happen on ANY/ALL databases created on the server--and yes, the database server runs on the same box as the webserver.

Mandrake Linux 7.2
Pgsql version 7.0
PHP 4.03

The box has 256MB of SDRAM, plenty for the VERY light load that is placed on it.

toma42

An upgrade to psql 7.1 will help for sure. I'd try that upgrading php first and see how that does

smarlowe

I agree with Tom, but keep in mind this could also be bad hardware. Have you tried compiling the kernel a couple times and seeing if you get a sig11 from the compiler? If so that's a sure sign your memory / CPU / I/O is somehow knackered.