Re: Removing archived wal files on Master

Hi Fabio,
Yes, For now I’m planning on using PITR approach until we can get a second server on which I will then introduce
replication.

I wish to start fresh on this current server so would like to first get rid of those 200GB files and then do a base
backupfollowed by wal archival.
 

I was a bit hesitant on whether deleting these 200gb files would cause unwanted side effects.

Regards,
Michael

> On 22 Feb 2019, at 8:24 pm, Fabio Pardi <f.pardi@portavita.eu> wrote:
> 
> Hi Michael,
> 
> archived WAL files are not only useful to a standby server, but are also used for Point In Time Recovery.
> 
> regards,
> 
> fabio
> 
>> On 22-02-19 12:19, Michael King wrote:
>> Hi, 
>> I recently acquired a legacy server. This is running Postgresql 9.3 on Ubuntu 16.04. 
>> There is around 200GB worth of archived wal files (~12,500 files)  located on /var/lib/postgresql/9.3/main/archive.

>> I have checked and can confirm that this is a standalone server without any Replication setup and no secondary/slave
servertalking to it.
 
>> 
>> Checking the /etc/postgresql/9.3/main/postgresql.conf file (write ahead log section), shows the following:
>> wal_level = minimal
>> archive_mode = off
>> archive_command = 'test ! -f /var/lib/postgresql/9.3/main/archive/%f && cp -i %p
/var/lib/postgresql/9.3/main/archive/%f</dev/null'
 
>> 
>> Replication section shows all default values.
>> 
>> Could you please advice how I can cleanup all of these 200GB worth of files.
>> I've searched through numerous postgresql books/blogs/articles which all have very good advise on how to setup wal
archivingbut unfortunately not on how to disable it.
 
>> 
>> Kind regards,
>> Michael
>> 
>