Database ulpdate for version 4.11

[black winter day]

Hi, i have upgraded to a new version (which now, reading the forums, i regret, but this cannot be changed already) and the program asked me to do a database update.

My postgres database is about 32gb and it's taking almost all of my laptop's c drive, i have around 5gb free.

Now, after running for about 2 hours, the process has terminated with an error that said something about not enough free space. So, what do i do now? Does the process really require that much free space? Can i somehow tell it to store the temp info on my d drive, which has a lot of space?

Thanks

[WhiteRider]

You will certainly need more free space - PostgreSQL will not be able to work optimally with a database so much larger than the amount of free space you have. In the short term you can change which drive the TEMP environment variable points to - directions.

For future reference, please post PT4 issues in the PT4 section of the forum.

[musashi87]

Hi,
I have dedicated 35GB SDD partition for my database. Before updating my database was ~15GB I tried to update it overnight but when I woke up in the morning I saw an error "not enough free space" how could it be?! I have more than 20GB free space even if my database would need to be copied in hole during the update it should be enough space there.
I run the rebuild cashe again today while in work and I'm checking the disk free space and usage from time to time. There was a moment when only 500mb was left free!
Am I to assume that I won't be able to perform cash rebuild with ONLY 20GB of free space then?

[musashi87]

BTW is there any way to see the progress of the update process?
I'll have to put my laptop at least in sleep/hibernate mode in about 2h for a time of ride work/home. But it would really be a bummer if the process got interrupted by that while close to finish (it's running already 5 hours).

[whiskyjohn]

You will certainly need more free space - PostgreSQL will not be able to work optimally with a database so much larger than the amount of free space you have. In the short term you can change which drive the TEMP environment variable points to - directions.

For future reference, please post PT4 issues in the PT4 section of the forum.

I had the same problem a couple weeks ago and I got the same response. And it is TERRIBLE!!!

First of all, changing the TEMP directory for Windows affects ALL programs using this directory, not just PokerTracker.

Secondly, if the problem is you are running out of disk space, changing the TEMP directory to anything but another
partition on the same disk (rare for most users), or to another disk entirely (also rare) is the only option! And what
happens when you start Windows and this partition or drive is no longer mounted?

Guys, you REALLY need to change this so we can set a TEMP directory inside a menu option for PokerTracker itself.

As it stands, I cannot do adequate database maintenance without first clearing GBs of space from my SDD and then
copying it back when done. Furthermore, an operation to Cluster the database takes up nearly as much space on
the drive as the original database itself. Thus, if I don't have free space equal to the size of the database, this
operation will FAIL. As you may know, SDD space is limited! I don't usually keep GBs and GBs of free SDD space
laying about.

Can you please just make PokerTracker point to a new location for Database Maintenance so I can hook up an
external drive and point PokerTracker to a directory on that drive? It would be SO SIMPLE!!!!

Thanks,
John

[kraada]

musashi,

There's no way to see the update progress at this time. In theory it should be sleep safe and continue working when you reopen the laptop later so you should be ok if there is no other way around this.

whiskyjohn,

It is not that simple -- the space is being taken by PostgreSQL, not PT4.

[musashi87]

Fortunately the update finished in time so I don't have to worry about it crushing while in sleep mode. Relocating 2 more GB of my SSD to SQL database partition did the trick apparently it failed yesterday because i was lacking this little bit of space for cluster operation - that could really be a problem in the future when my database grows and will occupy more than half of the partition.
I'll see how it performs after update when I get beck from work. I hope that everything went well and I'll have no problems with the PT.

EDIT:
And to be clear the process do not use windows temp folder I guess cos space was occupied in my database partition not windows partition (where the temp folder is located).

[black winter day]

I have changed my windows temp directory, but the process still takes place at my c drive. Meanwhile, the process has done something, since its probably half finished and i now have only 200mb of free memory.

Have no other choise than to delete the database and reimport hands again to build a new one, this is very frustrating. Wish i haven't updated anything.

[black winter day]

By the way, is it possible to change the directory where postgres is stored if i am creating a new db already? I would change it to my d drive which is much bigger than c.

[whiskyjohn]

musashi,

whiskyjohn,

It is not that simple -- the space is being taken by PostgreSQL, not PT4.

Sigh. You would think a programming environment as sophisticated as Postgresql would make this an easy thing to do.
Apparently not so easy, as a working TEMP directory is not something one can simply set in the postgresql.conf file.

However, I did find this link, as others have surely wanted to do it:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1873 ... -directory

I'm no Postgresql guru so I simply report this option. It would be up to the Pokertracker developers to implement some
way to do it.

Though such a thing may seem like a low priority, an SSD is certainly a huge boost for anyone running PokerTracker
on a sizable database. Even if one devotes an SSD to Pokertracker alone, it seems rather ridiculous to make sure
only half the drive is used so that certain database maintenance options can complete. SSDs are expensive and I
like to fill my SSD with all the data it can handle for faster access.

However, if you tell me that setting a TEMP directory to a non-SSD location for database maintenance (like a
large external drive) is going to take a significantly longer amount of time to complete (assuming it was implemented),
then first I'll pray SSDs soon get larger and less expensive, and then I'll simply copy non-essential data off the drive and
delete it before I begin Pokertracker maintenance.

John