[Mapserver-users] Mapserver performance for large maps - suggestions?

[Nick Johnson]

Hi,

I'm installing and configuring Mapserver for use in a geo-located photo 
album. I'm currently converting the vmap0 maps from their format into 
shapefiles with ogr2ogr so I can use them, and have a few questions 
about how to obtain the best performance:
- Should I merge all 4 regions of a particular layer into one file, or 
is there a benifit to keeping them seperate?
- Am I likely to encounter performance issues with such large layers? 
(The largest will be ~500MB - though I may not use it - the average 
probably around 30-60MB) If so, how can I improve performance? I'm aware 
I should have lower detail maps for wider views, but what can I do 
beyond that?
- Will loading the maps into PostGIS give an improvement in performance? 
I'd read somewhere that shapefiles are slightly faster than postgis for 
simple geographical queries - is this the case for large amounts of data 
such as this?
- What other things can I do to improve performance considering the 
amount of accessible map data?

Thanks,

Nick Johnson