Measures reported by PgTbspcGroupTest

Tablespaces in PostgreSQL allow database administrators to define locations in the file system where the files representing database objects can be stored. Once created, a tablespace can be referred to by name when creating database objects.

By using tablespaces, an administrator can control the disk layout of a PostgreSQL installation. This is useful in at least two ways. First, if the partition or volume on which the cluster was initialized runs out of space and cannot be extended, a tablespace can be created on a different partition and used until the system can be reconfigured.

Second, tablespaces allow an administrator to use knowledge of the usage pattern of database objects to optimize performance. For example, an index which is very heavily used can be placed on a very fast, highly available disk, such as an expensive solid state device. At the same time a table storing archived data which is rarely used or not performance critical could be stored on a less expensive, slower disk system.

Tablespaces should be adequately sized. If not, the tablespaces may not be able to accomodate many critical database objects, thereby causing the performance of the database to suffer. Continuous monitoring of tablespace size and usage is hence important. This test does just that. This test auto-discovers tablespaces managed by this PostgreSQL server and reports how well the tablespace has been utilized.

The measures made by this test are as follows: