PostgreSQL Compression Test

Overview

The following tests calculate the amount of disk space required to store 10+ million time:value samples in a PostgreSQL database, version 9.6.

Results

Schema	Data Size	Index Size	Total Size	Row Count	Bytes per Row	Bytes per Sample
Trade Table	156,082,176	64,544,768	220,626,944	2,045,514	107.9	21.6
Universal Table	533,659,648	322,625,536	856,285,184	10,227,570	83.7	83.7

Dataset

The dataset represents 20+ years of historical minute stock trade data available from the Kibot company.

The one minute trade statistics are available for IBM stock traded on the New York Stock Exchange. The recording starts on February 1st, 1998 and lasts until the last trading day.

The data is provided in the commonly used OHLCV format.

Date,Time,Open,High,Low,Close,Volume
01/02/1998,09:30,104.5,104.5,104.5,104.5,67000
...
09/08/2017,17:38,142.45,142.45,142.45,142.45,3556

The records can be downloaded from http://api.kibot.com/?action=history&symbol=IBM&interval=1&unadjusted=0&bp=1&user=guest.

The file contains over 2 million lines. The OHLC metrics contain values with up to four decimal places. The volume metric is an integer. The dates are recorded in the US/Eastern time zone.

Each row consists of 5 metrics for a given 1-minute interval:

09/08/2017,15:42,142.53,142.5399,142.49,142.49,10031
...
time   = 09/08/2017 15:42
open   = 142.53
high   = 142.5399
low    = 142.49
close  = 142.49
volume = 10031

Schema Alternatives

The tests are performed using two schema options:

Trade Table schema uses a named column for each input metric.
Universal Table schema uses a single metric ID column for all input metrics.

The Trade Table schema requires less disk space however the underlying table can not be extended to store different sets of columns for different instrument types. As such, multiple tables must be created to store data for various instrument types.

The Universal Table schema allows adding new metrics without altering the tables. This can be done by inserting a new record into the Metrics table (a dictionary) and using foreign keys when inserting data into the data table.

Trade Table Schema

trade_history Table

\d trade_history
+------------+--------------------------------+-----------+
|   Column   |              Type              | Modifiers |
+------------+--------------------------------+-----------+
| instrument | integer                        | not null  |
| open       | numeric(7,4)                   |           |
| high       | numeric(7,4)                   |           |
| low        | numeric(7,4)                   |           |
| close      | numeric(7,4)                   |           |
| volume     | integer                        |           |
| time       | timestamp(0) without time zone | not null  |
+------------+--------------------------------+-----------+

SELECT * FROM trade_history LIMIT 5;
+------------+----------+----------+----------+----------+--------+---------------------+
| instrument |   open   |   high   |   low    |  close   | volume |        time         |
+------------+----------+----------+----------+----------+--------+---------------------+
|          1 | 104.5000 | 104.5000 | 104.5000 | 104.5000 |  67000 | 1998-01-02 09:30:00 |
|          1 | 104.3800 | 104.5000 | 104.3800 | 104.3800 |  10800 | 1998-01-02 09:31:00 |
|          1 | 104.4400 | 104.5000 | 104.3800 | 104.5000 |  13300 | 1998-01-02 09:32:00 |
|          1 | 104.4400 | 104.5000 | 104.3800 | 104.3800 |  16800 | 1998-01-02 09:33:00 |
|          1 | 104.3800 | 104.5000 | 104.3800 | 104.3800 |   4801 | 1998-01-02 09:34:00 |
+------------+----------+----------+----------+----------+--------+---------------------+

instruments Table

\d instruments
+--------+-----------------------+----------------------------------------------------------+
| Column |         Type          |                        Modifiers                         |
+--------+-----------------------+----------------------------------------------------------+
| id     | integer               | not null default nextval('instruments_id_seq'::regclass) |
| name   | character varying(20) |                                                          |
+--------+-----------------------+----------------------------------------------------------+

SELECT * FROM instruments;
+----+------+
| id | name |
+----+------+
|  1 | IBM  |
+----+------+

Universal Table Schema

universal_history Table

\d universal_history
+------------+--------------------------------+-----------+
|   Column   |              Type              | Modifiers |
+------------+--------------------------------+-----------+
| instrument | integer                        | not null  |
| metric     | integer                        | not null  |
| time       | timestamp(0) without time zone | not null  |
| value      | numeric(12,4)                  |           |
+------------+--------------------------------+-----------+

SELECT * FROM universal_history LIMIT 5;
+------------+--------+---------------------+----------+
| instrument | metric |        time         |  value   |
+------------+--------+---------------------+----------+
|          1 |      1 | 1998-01-02 09:30:00 | 104.5000 |
|          1 |      1 | 1998-01-02 09:31:00 | 104.3800 |
|          1 |      1 | 1998-01-02 09:32:00 | 104.4400 |
|          1 |      1 | 1998-01-02 09:33:00 | 104.4400 |
|          1 |      1 | 1998-01-02 09:34:00 | 104.3800 |
+------------+--------+---------------------+----------+

instruments Table

\d instruments
+--------+-----------------------+----------------------------------------------------------+
| Column |         Type          |                        Modifiers                         |
+--------+-----------------------+----------------------------------------------------------+
| id     | integer               | not null default nextval('instruments_id_seq'::regclass) |
| name   | character varying(20) |                                                          |
+--------+-----------------------+----------------------------------------------------------+

SELECT * FROM instruments;
+----+------+
| id | name |
+----+------+
|  1 | IBM  |
+----+------+

metrics Table

\d metrics
+--------+-----------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
| Column |         Type          |                      Modifiers                       |
+--------+-----------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
| id     | integer               | not null default nextval('metrics_id_seq'::regclass) |
| name   | character varying(20) |                                                      |
+--------+-----------------------+------------------------------------------------------+

SELECT * FROM metrics;
+----+--------+
| id |  name  |
+----+--------+
|  1 | Open   |
|  2 | High   |
|  3 | Low    |
|  4 | Close  |
|  5 | Volume |
+----+--------+

Executing Tests

Download Input Data

Create directory /tmp/test.

mkdir /tmp/test

Download the dataset.

curl --compressed -o /tmp/test/IBM_adjusted.txt \
  "http://api.kibot.com/?action=history&symbol=IBM&interval=1&unadjusted=0&bp=1&user=guest"

Verify the row count:

wc -l IBM_adjusted.txt

2045926 IBM_adjusted.txt

Launch PostgreSQL Database Container

Start a PostgreSQL 9.6 container. Mount /tmp/test directory to the container.

docker run --name postgres \
   -e POSTGRES_USER=axibase \
   -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=axibase \
   -v /tmp/test:/data \
   -d postgres:9.6

Execute SQL scripts for the Trade Table Schema

curl -o /tmp/test/postgres-trade-table.sql \
 "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/axibase/atsd/master/administration/compaction/postgres-trade-table.sql"

docker exec -i postgres \
    sh -c "dropdb -U axibase --if-exists axibase && createdb -U axibase axibase" && \
    cat /tmp/test/postgres-trade-table.sql | \
    docker exec -i postgres psql -U axibase -q -P "footer=off" -P "border=2"

+---------------+------------------+-----------------+------------------------+
|  table_name   | pg_relation_size | pg_indexes_size | pg_total_relation_size |
+---------------+------------------+-----------------+------------------------+
| trade_history |        156082176 |        64544768 |              220626944 |
+---------------+------------------+-----------------+------------------------+

+-----------+---------------------+---------------------+
| row_count |      min_time       |      max_time       |
+-----------+---------------------+---------------------+
|   2045514 | 1998-01-02 09:30:00 | 2017-09-08 17:38:00 |
+-----------+---------------------+---------------------+

Execute SQL scripts for the Universal Table Schema

curl -o /tmp/test/postgres-universal-table.sql \
 "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/axibase/atsd/master/administration/compaction/postgres-universal-table.sql"

docker exec -i postgres \
    sh -c "dropdb -U axibase --if-exists axibase && createdb -U axibase axibase" && \
    cat /tmp/test/postgres-universal-table.sql | \
    docker exec -i postgres psql -U axibase -q -P "footer=off" -P "border=2"

+-------------------+------------------+-----------------+------------------------+
|    table_name     | pg_relation_size | pg_indexes_size | pg_total_relation_size |
+-------------------+------------------+-----------------+------------------------+
| universal_history |        533659648 |       322625536 |              856285184 |
+-------------------+------------------+-----------------+------------------------+

+-----------+---------------------+---------------------+
| row_count |      min_time       |      max_time       |
+-----------+---------------------+---------------------+
|  10227570 | 1998-01-02 09:30:00 | 2017-09-08 17:38:00 |
+-----------+---------------------+---------------------+

# PostgreSQL Compression Test

# Overview

# Results

# Dataset

# Schema Alternatives

# Trade Table Schema

# Universal Table Schema

# Executing Tests

# Download Input Data

# Launch PostgreSQL Database Container

# Execute SQL scripts for the Trade Table Schema

# Execute SQL scripts for the Universal Table Schema