One of the things I sometimes get asked to do is review someone's postgresql.conf settings. From time to time, I run across a configuration where the value of autovacuum_naptime has been increased, often by a large multiple. The default value of autovacuum_naptime is 1 minute, and I have seen users increase this value to 1 hour, or in one case, 1 day. This is not a good idea. In this blog post, I will attempt to explain why it's not a good idea, and also something about the limited circumstances under which you might want to change autovacuum_naptime.
