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Let's assume the table, intermediate10, is ~2.2 TB in size.

The following query takes ~4 days to run on a pretty powerful DB box (32 CPUs, 256 GB RAM) that is optimized to allow up to 32 parallel workers and has sufficiently high work_mem:

create table subset as(
 select 
    *
  from
    (
    select
      *,
      RANK() OVER (PARTITION BY col1, col2 ORDER BY random()) AS rankct
    from
      intermediate10
    where
      col3 <= 20
  ) a
  where rankct <= 50
)

I understand that there is an extraneous subquery above, but that is an artifact from some logic I had to remove before posting. Regardless, this does not materially change the query plan or its efficiency.

I have an index on intermediate10: CREATE INDEX ON intermediate10 (col1, col2);

but the query plan isn't using it:

Subquery Scan on a  (cost=842128231.97..882842032.15 rows=361900446 width=1350)
  Filter: (a.rankct <= 50)
  ->  WindowAgg  (cost=842128231.97..869270765.42 rows=1085701338 width=1358)
        ->  Sort  (cost=842128231.97..844842485.32 rows=1085701338 width=1350)
              Sort Key: intermediate10.col1, intermediate10.col2, (random())
              ->  Seq Scan on intermediate10  (cost=0.00..314458488.95 rows=1085701338 width=1350)
                    Filter: (col3 <= 20)

Interestingly, if the order by random() is removed, the query will at least parallelize:

WindowAgg  (cost=471738126.21..673065708.94 rows=1467031808 width=1350)
  ->  Gather Merge  (cost=471738126.21..647392652.30 rows=1467031808 width=1342)
        Workers Planned: 4
        ->  Sort  (cost=471737126.15..472654021.03 rows=366757952 width=1342)
              Sort Key: col1, col2
              ->  Parallel Seq Scan on intermediate10  (cost=0.00..297073917.52 rows=366757952 width=1342)

but having that random selection of the 50 in the "sample" is not negotiable.

Needless to say, a 4-day runtime for this is unacceptable.

How could this be optimized?

9
  • Why do you think the index on col1 and col2 would be useful? What about col3?
    – mustaccio
    Dec 9, 2021 at 17:41
  • Admittedly, that index should probably be created, but even if I remove the filter on col3, the query planner still doesn’t use the index on col1 and col2.
    – kmypwn
    Dec 9, 2021 at 18:45
  • 1
    An index is used to quickly look up a few rows from many rows. You are retrieving a substantial amount of rows from that table, so an index lookup would most likely make things slower, not faster. And as you are retrieving all columns of the table, an index won't help in sorting either.
    – user1822
    Dec 9, 2021 at 20:54
  • 2
    Which Postgres version are you using? I am a bit surprised that the plan doesn't show a parallel query. If the condition where col3 <= 20 reduces the number of rows substantially (to maybe 10 or 20% of the total number of rows), then this would be the only index that could help.
    – user1822
    Dec 9, 2021 at 20:57
  • @a_horse_with_no_name I think that the WindowAgg can't currently be parallelized. It could parallelize the sort and then merge before the WindowAgg, but the high default setting of parallel_tuple_cost makes that look unattractive. Perhaps unduly so, I think the default setting of parallel_tuple_cost is a bit high.
    – jjanes
    Dec 9, 2021 at 22:13

1 Answer 1

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It probably doesn't use the index because it thinks it will be slower. You can force it to use the index anyway (in recent enough versions to offer incremental sorts) by setting enable_seqscan=off. And in my hands, it actually is slower.

It can read the index in logical order, but it has to read the entire index. And for every index entry, it has to jump to the table so that it can look up col3, so it can filter out the ones >20. So it will be reading the entire table, and doing so (unless the table is clustered in line with the index) in random order. This is a recipe for IO disaster.

A more useful index might be on (col1,col2,col3). Then it can filter out the bad values on col3 without visiting the table, and do an index-only scan. The table should be well-vacuumed to make that happen.

Another possible index would be on (col3,col1,col2). For this one, it would only have to visit the logical part of the index holding values for col3<=20. We have no idea how many that is, though, since you didn't show an EXPLAIN (ANALYZE, BUFFERS) or give us other useful information. If it is small enough, this would be good. Then it likely needs to do a full sort of the surviving rows, as the inequality on col3 ruined whatever order would have been present on (col1,col2). But at least it could still be an index-only scan.

5
  • Good points here and I appreciate it -- if I remove the col3 filter, I still don't get any kind of index usage or parallelism. Interestingly, if I remove the order by random() from within the partition clause, it will spawn multiple workers (though still no index use): -> Parallel Seq Scan on intermediate10 (cost=0.00..297073917.52 rows=366757952 width=1342)
    – kmypwn
    Dec 10, 2021 at 3:53
  • Would you have any thoughts about how else this query could be accomplished more efficiently? To essentially take a sample of 50 rows matching each pairing of col1 & col3?
    – kmypwn
    Dec 10, 2021 at 3:55
  • If the sample has to be rigorously randomized, then you have no choice but to visit ever point which has a chance of being included. That rules out a lot of possibilities. The next option would be partitioning, but if your data is so large even you can't even build a new index, you certainly can't retrofit it into partitions!
    – jjanes
    Dec 10, 2021 at 19:29
  • Without the filter on col3, I get an index scan with an incremental sort. What version are you on? Is it at least 13? Even if you don't filter on col3, you are still selecting it (due to the * select list) and so can't get the index-only scan with the existing index
    – jjanes
    Dec 10, 2021 at 19:53
  • I'm on 13.4 and it's not showing the index scan, unfortunately
    – kmypwn
    Dec 15, 2021 at 16:58

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