Re: Bug #871: FW: How to solve the problem

Derek,

> Long Description
> NOTICE:  Message from PostgreSQL backend:
>         The Postmaster has informed me that some other backend
>         died abnormally and possibly corrupted shared memory.
>         I have rolled back the current transaction and am
>         going to terminate your database system connection and exit.
>         Please reconnect to the database system and repeat your query.
> server closed the connection unexpectedly
>         This probably means the server terminated abnormally
>         before or while processing the request.

Did you KILL -9 one or more Postgres processes?  Then you will get this=20
message, and have to restart the postgresql server to use it again.

IF YOU ARE STILL GETTING THIS ERROR AFTER RESTARTING, then please read the=
=20
following:

This somewhat deceptive message, in my experience, is usually caused by a=
=20
database crash which WAL is unable to easily recover from, such as HDD erro=
rs=20
corrupting the Postgres files.=20=20

Please do the following:
WARNING: The below is provided strictly as volunteer peer-to-peer advice.=
=20=20
Follow AT YOUR OWN RISK.

1) Shutdown PostgreSQL using "pg_ctl -m fast stop"
2) check your process log to make sure that *all* postgres processes are=20
halted.   Give the system some time to shut everything down.
2)a) if you cannot shut down all postgres processes properly, even after 15=
-20=20
minutes, try restarting the system.
3) re-start Postgresql.  Give it some time to attempt to restore itself; 20=
-30=20
minutes may be necessary with a large database and a slow server.
4) Connect to PostgreSQL.  If you get that message again, then you have som=
e=20
kind of serious hardware or OS related problem that Postgres can't deal wit=
h.=20=20
If you connect normally, then everything is OK; skip the rest of the=20
suggestions.
5) Shut down postgres again.
6) Use diagnostic tools to examine your system for: a) Hard drive/controlle=
r=20
errors; b) bad RAM; c) OS errors; d) other hardware issues
7) correct any problems you find through (6)
8) re-start postgres and restore your database from backup (you do have a=
=20
backup, yes?)
9) start using postgresql again.

Good luck!


--=20
-Josh Berkus
 Aglio Database Solutions
 San Francisco