How to Check Minimum System Requirements for ParadeDB in PostgreSQL

What are the minimum system requirements to run ParadeDB on PostgreSQL?

Identify CPU, memory, disk, and PostgreSQL version prerequisites before installing the ParadeDB extension.

Welcome to the Galaxy, Guardian!

Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.

Description

What hardware does ParadeDB need?

ParadeDB runs on any x86-64 or ARM64 machine that can run PostgreSQL 15 or later. For proof-of-concept work, 2 vCPUs, 4 GB RAM, and 20 GB SSD suffice. Production search workloads start at 4 vCPUs, 16 GB RAM, and NVMe or performant cloud block storage.

Which PostgreSQL version is required?

ParadeDB targets PostgreSQL 15+. Earlier releases lack required extension APIs. Confirm the server version with SELECT version();.Upgrade before proceeding if needed.

How much RAM should I allocate?

Allocate at least 2× the total size of vectors plus 20 % head-room for query work buffers. For an ecommerce catalog holding 5 M products (1536-dim vectors ≈ 30 GB), plan on 60-64 GB RAM.

Is SSD storage mandatory?

Yes. ParadeDB performs random vector I/O during ANN search. Use local NVMe or provisioned IOPS cloud volumes. Aim for >50k IOPS and <1 ms latency.Magnetic disks bottleneck recall and latency.

What OS packages do I need?

Install GNU make, clang or gcc, and postgresql-server-dev-15 (Deb-based) or postgresql15-devel (RPM). These provide headers for compiling the extension.

How do I verify resources at runtime?

Run CREATE EXTENSION paradedb;. Then execute:

SELECT paradedb_check();

The function raises NOTICEs if CPU SIMD support (AVX2/NEON), shared_buffers, or work_mem are below recommended thresholds.

Best practices for cloud deployments?

Choose compute-optimized instances (AWS c7g, GCP c3) with local NVMe. Use managed Postgres wrappers only if they allow custom extensions.Otherwise run ParadeDB on self-managed Postgres in Kubernetes or on a VM.

What are typical configuration tweaks?

Set:

shared_buffers = 25% of RAM
work_mem = 64MB
maintenance_work_mem = 2GB
max_parallel_workers = CPU cores

These values balance vector index build speed and query throughput.

Why How to Check Minimum System Requirements for ParadeDB in PostgreSQL is important

How to Check Minimum System Requirements for ParadeDB in PostgreSQL Example Usage


-- Create a vector column on Products
aLTER TABLE Products
ADD COLUMN embedding vector(1536);

-- Create ParadeDB index
CREATE INDEX idx_products_embedding
ON Products
USING paradedb (embedding);

-- Find top-5 similar products to a query vector
SELECT id, name, price
FROM Products
ORDER BY embedding <-> '[0.12, 0.03, ... , 0.44]'::vector
LIMIT 5;

How to Check Minimum System Requirements for ParadeDB in PostgreSQL Syntax


-- Install ParadeDB extension
CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS paradedb
    WITH SCHEMA public
    VERSION 'latest';

-- Optional: choose a different schema and lock version
CREATE EXTENSION paradedb
    WITH SCHEMA analytics
    VERSION '0.5.1';

Common Mistakes

Ignoring PostgreSQL version. Attempting to install ParadeDB on 13 or 14 fails with "undefined symbol" errors. Fix by upgrading to PostgreSQL 15+.
Using magnetic disks. Spinning media causes >200 ms ANN queries. Fix by switching to SSD/NVMe volumes or cloud block storage with <1 ms latency.