postgresql on FreeBSD 5.3 and high load

[Sean Chittenden]

> Our postgresql-server hits the wall when we get many
> hits on our web. The load-average reaches 70. It
> serves 11 webservers.

Have you looked to see if you're using spin locks or not?  Search for 
"amd64 x86_64 spin lock" in PostgreSQL's archives.  I think spin locks 
were disabled for amd64.  When you're at a load of 70, look in 
pg_catalog.pg_locks to see if you have any ungranted locks.

Also, is your application primarily read?  You may want to investigate 
using pgpool as a way of reducing the overhead for connection startup.

Another option is to use memcached and remove some queries from the 
database all together.  -sc

-- 
Sean Chittenden