Document database connection limits
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docs/installation/11_optimisation.md
docs/installation/11_optimisation.md
@@ -11,6 +11,41 @@ permalink: /installation/start/optimisation
Now that you have Dendrite running, the following tweaks will improve the reliability
and performance of your installation.
+## PostgreSQL connection limit
+
+A PostgreSQL database engine is configured to allow only a certain number of connections.
+This is typically controlled by the `max_connections` and `superuser_reserved_connections`
+configuration items in `postgresql.conf`. Once these limits are violated, **PostgreSQL will
+immediately stop accepting new connections** until some of the existing connections are closed.
+This is a common source of misconfiguration and requires particular care.
+
+If your PostgreSQL `max_connections` is set to `100` and `superuser_reserved_connections` is
+set to `3` then you have an effective connection limit of 97 database connections. It is
+therefore important to ensure that Dendrite doesn't violate that limit, otherwise database
+queries will unexpectedly fail and this will cause problems both within Dendrite and for users.
+
+If you are also running other software that uses the same PostgreSQL database engine, then you
+must also take into account that some connections will be already used by your other software
+and therefore will not be available to Dendrite. Check the configuration of any other software
+using the same database engine for their configured connection limits and adjust your calculations
+accordingly.
+
+Dendrite has a `max_open_conns` configuration item in each `database` block to control how many
+connections it will open to the database.
+
+**If you are using the `global` database pool** then you only need to configure the
+`max_open_conns` setting once in the `global` section.
+
+**If you are defining a `database` config per component** then you will need to ensure that
+the **sum total** of all configured `max_open_conns` to a given database server do not exceed
+the connection limit. If you configure a total that adds up to more connections than are available
+then this will cause database queries to fail.
+
+You may wish to raise the `max_connections` limit on your PostgreSQL server to accommodate
+additional connections, in which case you should also update the `max_open_conns` in your
+Dendrite configuration accordingly. However be aware that this is only advisable on particularly
+powerful servers that can handle the concurrent load of additional queries running at one time.
+
## File descriptor limit
Most platforms have a limit on how many file descriptors a single process can open. All

Document database connection limits