Re: Hard limit on WAL space used (because PANIC sucks)

On 06/06/2013 09:30 PM, Jeff Janes wrote:

>     Archiving
>     ---------
>
>     In some ways, this is the simplest case.  Really, we just need a way to
>     know when the available WAL space has become 90% full, and abort
>     archiving at that stage.  Once we stop attempting to archive, we can
>     clean up the unneeded log segments.
>
>
> I would oppose that as the solution, either an unconditional one, or
> configurable with is it as the default.  Those segments are not
> unneeded.  I need them.  That is why I set up archiving in the first
> place.  If you need to shut down the database rather than violate my
> established retention policy, then shut down the database.

Agreed and I would oppose it even as configurable. We set up the 
archiving for a reason. I do think it might be useful to be able to 
store archiving logs as well as wal_keep_segments logs in a different 
location than pg_xlog.

>
>     What we need is a better way for the DBA to find out that archiving is
>     falling behind when it first starts to fall behind.  Tailing the log and
>     examining the rather cryptic error messages we give out isn't very
>     effective.
>
>
> The archive command can be made a shell script (or that matter a
> compiled program) which can do anything it wants upon failure, including
> emailing people.


Yep, that is what PITRTools does. You can make it do whatever you want.


JD