autovacuum_analyze_scale_factor
Fact — official short description: “Number of tuple inserts, updates, or deletes prior to analyze as a fraction of reltuples.”
Identity
Lifecycle
| Fact | Value |
|---|---|
| First observed | PG9.0 (research boundary) |
| Present in | PG9.0–19 Beta 3 |
| Removed in | No |
| Introduction commit | Not asserted: predates the PG9.0 research boundary |
| Commit date | — |
| Discussion | — |
Default history
| Versions | Raw boot_val |
Unit | Human value |
|---|---|---|---|
| PG9.0–19 Beta 3 | 0.1 |
— | 0.1 |
How it works
Number of tuple inserts, updates, or deletes prior to analyze as a fraction of reltuples. A configuration reload applies a new value; existing work already in flight is not retroactively changed.
The automatic-ANALYZE trigger is autovacuum_analyze_threshold plus autovacuum_analyze_scale_factor times pg_class.reltuples; inserts, updates, and deletes feed the cumulative counter. Per-table storage parameters can override the global values, and the statistics are eventually consistent estimates.
Monitor and change autovacuum_analyze_scale_factor together with autovacuum_analyze_threshold, default_statistics_target, track_counts. Validate on the relevant server role and real workload, then use its sighup context to choose session change, reload, or restart; a historical boot default is not the current effective value.
Tuning advice
Advice. These are workload-specific starting points and must be validated with measurements.
| Workload | Guidance |
|---|---|
| OLTP | Tune autovacuum_analyze_scale_factor from table size, change rate, and maintenance SLA, using per-table thresholds for large/hot relations. Observe trigger intervals, dead tuples, and ANALYZE/VACUUM duration. |
| OLAP | Run explicit ANALYZE/VACUUM after bulk loads instead of waiting only for proportional triggers; plan freezing and visibility-map advancement separately for append-only partitions. |
| Small nodes | Start with upstream or the measured Pigsty matrix value. Fixed thresholds dominate on small tables; after changes, confirm worker and I/O headroom. |
Pigsty
Values use the fixed 8-vCPU, 32-GiB, 100-GiB SSD fixture and render the current Pigsty templates for PG19 Beta 3; this does not assert current Pigsty support for that historical or beta release.
| Template | Effective value | Versus upstream boot | Source expression |
|---|---|---|---|
| OLTP | 0.04 |
different | 0.04 |
| OLAP | 0.04 |
different | 0.04 |
| CRIT | 0.04 |
different | 0.04 |
| TINY | Unmodified | — | — |
Advice — pending human review. Fact from the current Pigsty template projection: OLTP: PG9.0–19 Beta 3 = 0.04 (dcs); OLAP: PG9.0–19 Beta 3 = 0.04 (dcs); CRIT: PG9.0–19 Beta 3 = 0.04 (dcs); TINY: PG9.0–19 Beta 3 unmodified. Advice, pending human review — Editorial interpretation, pending human maintainer review: the override appears intended to refresh planner statistics earlier on growing production tables; confirm it against the current Pigsty templates, hardware fixture, and operational guarantees before publication.
Common pitfalls
- Changing the global value while a table storage parameter overrides it.
- Treating reltuples and cumulative change statistics as exact real-time counts.
- Blaming a threshold without checking long transactions, replication slots, and worker saturation.
- Buying short-term quiet by deferring maintenance until wraparound failsafe activates.
Related parameters
autovacuum_analyze_threshold · default_statistics_target · track_counts · autovacuum · autovacuum_freeze_max_age · autovacuum_max_workers
References
- PostgreSQL 19 Beta 3 — autovacuum_analyze_scale_factor
- PostgreSQL 19 release notes
- Machine-readable GUC export