Checkpoints happen automatically and are triggered by the server. However, there are configuration settings that decide when a checkpoint is initiated. The following parameters in the postgresql.conf file are in charge of handling checkpoints:
#checkpoint_timeout = 5min # range 30s-1d#max_wal_size = 1GB#min_wal_size = 80MB
There are two reasons to initiate a checkpoint: we can run out of time or we can run out of space. The maximum time between two checkpoints is defined by the checkpoint_timeout variables. The amount of space provided to store transaction logs will vary between the min_wal_size and max_wal_size variable. PostgreSQL will automatically trigger checkpoints in a way that the amount of space really ...
