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How to tell which indexes are not being used

Submitted by: @import:stackexchange-dba··
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areusedindexesbeingtellhowwhichnot

Problem

Postgresql 9.3
Debian 7

I have a lot of huge indexes in a legacy database I'm trying to optimize. Thinking about dropping all the useless ones, but how can I tell how often they are used and if they are not used at all.

Is there any usage statistics somewhere or some trick query to do that?

Solution

See New Finding Unused Indexes Query by Josh Berkus, which links to a big query summarizing all the indexes which may not be pulling their weight:

WITH table_scans as (
    SELECT relid,
        tables.idx_scan + tables.seq_scan as all_scans,
        ( tables.n_tup_ins + tables.n_tup_upd + tables.n_tup_del ) as writes,
                pg_relation_size(relid) as table_size
        FROM pg_stat_user_tables as tables
),
all_writes as (
    SELECT sum(writes) as total_writes
    FROM table_scans
),
indexes as (
    SELECT idx_stat.relid, idx_stat.indexrelid,
        idx_stat.schemaname, idx_stat.relname as tablename,
        idx_stat.indexrelname as indexname,
        idx_stat.idx_scan,
        pg_relation_size(idx_stat.indexrelid) as index_bytes,
        indexdef ~* 'USING btree' AS idx_is_btree
    FROM pg_stat_user_indexes as idx_stat
        JOIN pg_index
            USING (indexrelid)
        JOIN pg_indexes as indexes
            ON idx_stat.schemaname = indexes.schemaname
                AND idx_stat.relname = indexes.tablename
                AND idx_stat.indexrelname = indexes.indexname
    WHERE pg_index.indisunique = FALSE
),
index_ratios AS (
SELECT schemaname, tablename, indexname,
    idx_scan, all_scans,
    round(( CASE WHEN all_scans = 0 THEN 0.0::NUMERIC
        ELSE idx_scan::NUMERIC/all_scans * 100 END),2) as index_scan_pct,
    writes,
    round((CASE WHEN writes = 0 THEN idx_scan::NUMERIC ELSE idx_scan::NUMERIC/writes END),2)
        as scans_per_write,
    pg_size_pretty(index_bytes) as index_size,
    pg_size_pretty(table_size) as table_size,
    idx_is_btree, index_bytes
    FROM indexes
    JOIN table_scans
    USING (relid)
),
index_groups AS (
SELECT 'Never Used Indexes' as reason, *, 1 as grp
FROM index_ratios
WHERE
    idx_scan = 0
    and idx_is_btree
UNION ALL
SELECT 'Low Scans, High Writes' as reason, *, 2 as grp
FROM index_ratios
WHERE
    scans_per_write  0
    and writes > 100
    and idx_is_btree
UNION ALL
SELECT 'Seldom Used Large Indexes' as reason, *, 3 as grp
FROM index_ratios
WHERE
    index_scan_pct  1
    and idx_scan > 0
    and idx_is_btree
    and index_bytes > 100000000
UNION ALL
SELECT 'High-Write Large Non-Btree' as reason, index_ratios.*, 4 as grp 
FROM index_ratios, all_writes
WHERE
    ( writes::NUMERIC / ( total_writes + 1 ) ) > 0.02
    AND NOT idx_is_btree
    AND index_bytes > 100000000
ORDER BY grp, index_bytes DESC )
SELECT reason, schemaname, tablename, indexname,
    index_scan_pct, scans_per_write, index_size, table_size
FROM index_groups;

Code Snippets

WITH table_scans as (
    SELECT relid,
        tables.idx_scan + tables.seq_scan as all_scans,
        ( tables.n_tup_ins + tables.n_tup_upd + tables.n_tup_del ) as writes,
                pg_relation_size(relid) as table_size
        FROM pg_stat_user_tables as tables
),
all_writes as (
    SELECT sum(writes) as total_writes
    FROM table_scans
),
indexes as (
    SELECT idx_stat.relid, idx_stat.indexrelid,
        idx_stat.schemaname, idx_stat.relname as tablename,
        idx_stat.indexrelname as indexname,
        idx_stat.idx_scan,
        pg_relation_size(idx_stat.indexrelid) as index_bytes,
        indexdef ~* 'USING btree' AS idx_is_btree
    FROM pg_stat_user_indexes as idx_stat
        JOIN pg_index
            USING (indexrelid)
        JOIN pg_indexes as indexes
            ON idx_stat.schemaname = indexes.schemaname
                AND idx_stat.relname = indexes.tablename
                AND idx_stat.indexrelname = indexes.indexname
    WHERE pg_index.indisunique = FALSE
),
index_ratios AS (
SELECT schemaname, tablename, indexname,
    idx_scan, all_scans,
    round(( CASE WHEN all_scans = 0 THEN 0.0::NUMERIC
        ELSE idx_scan::NUMERIC/all_scans * 100 END),2) as index_scan_pct,
    writes,
    round((CASE WHEN writes = 0 THEN idx_scan::NUMERIC ELSE idx_scan::NUMERIC/writes END),2)
        as scans_per_write,
    pg_size_pretty(index_bytes) as index_size,
    pg_size_pretty(table_size) as table_size,
    idx_is_btree, index_bytes
    FROM indexes
    JOIN table_scans
    USING (relid)
),
index_groups AS (
SELECT 'Never Used Indexes' as reason, *, 1 as grp
FROM index_ratios
WHERE
    idx_scan = 0
    and idx_is_btree
UNION ALL
SELECT 'Low Scans, High Writes' as reason, *, 2 as grp
FROM index_ratios
WHERE
    scans_per_write <= 1
    and index_scan_pct < 10
    and idx_scan > 0
    and writes > 100
    and idx_is_btree
UNION ALL
SELECT 'Seldom Used Large Indexes' as reason, *, 3 as grp
FROM index_ratios
WHERE
    index_scan_pct < 5
    and scans_per_write > 1
    and idx_scan > 0
    and idx_is_btree
    and index_bytes > 100000000
UNION ALL
SELECT 'High-Write Large Non-Btree' as reason, index_ratios.*, 4 as grp 
FROM index_ratios, all_writes
WHERE
    ( writes::NUMERIC / ( total_writes + 1 ) ) > 0.02
    AND NOT idx_is_btree
    AND index_bytes > 100000000
ORDER BY grp, index_bytes DESC )
SELECT reason, schemaname, tablename, indexname,
    index_scan_pct, scans_per_write, index_size, table_size
FROM index_groups;

Context

StackExchange Database Administrators Q#74879, answer score: 15

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