Received: from localhost (unknown [200.46.204.183]) by mail.postgresql.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5D5D463325B for ; Sat, 21 Feb 2009 11:15:25 -0400 (AST) Received: from mail.postgresql.org ([200.46.204.86]) by localhost (mx1.hub.org [200.46.204.183]) (amavisd-maia, port 10024) with ESMTP id 42089-03 for ; Sat, 21 Feb 2009 11:15:15 -0400 (AST) X-Greylist: delayed 00:40:52.597979 by SQLgrey-1.7.6 Received: from fed1rmpop111.cox.net (fed1rmpop111.cox.net [68.230.241.15]) by mail.postgresql.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 34A4C632698 for ; Sat, 21 Feb 2009 11:15:14 -0400 (AST) Received: from fed1rmimpo03.cox.net ([70.169.32.75]) by fed1rmmtao103.cox.net (InterMail vM.7.08.02.01 201-2186-121-102-20070209) with ESMTP id <20090221143343.TQDR12838.fed1rmmtao103.cox.net@fed1rmimpo03.cox.net>; Sat, 21 Feb 2009 09:33:43 -0500 Received: from [192.168.1.3] ([98.165.48.110]) by fed1rmimpo03.cox.net with bizsmtp id JeZj1b00D2Neijm04eZkPr; Sat, 21 Feb 2009 09:33:44 -0500 X-Authority-Analysis: v=1.0 c=1 a=4pmkf3WzJo8A:10 a=joKuMcU5EiQA:10 a=tFzm9DhEAAAA:8 a=7MGaOEDQYannvJ8nL1cA:9 a=SGAt6bnlOFYErymG-F8MPCJUWmQA:4 a=Bsv0kzvEhs0A:10 a=6qQSkXpCXGcA:10 a=cymkAsTbCWcA:10 a=ks4g6Af11AaUqlau:21 a=heaI8QH9ojMjiyam:21 X-CM-Score: 0.00 Message-ID: <49A0110D.8020302@eldocomp.com> Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2009 07:34:53 -0700 From: Naomi Walker User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.19 (Windows/20081209) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Scott Marlowe CC: Michael Monnerie , pgsql-admin@postgresql.org Subject: Re: 8.3.5 broken after power fail SOLVED References: <43a3a0bccd3684972f33e0051b45f2b4@webmail.zmi.at> <200902210943.27875@zmi.at> In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Virus-Scanned: Maia Mailguard 1.0.1 X-Spam-Status: No, hits=0 tagged_above=0 required=5 tests=none X-Spam-Level: X-Archive-Number: 200902/174 X-Sequence-Number: 31395 Other than disaster tests, how would I know if I have an system that lies about fsync? > > We preach this again and again. PostgreSQL can only survive a power > outage type failure ONLY if the hardware / OS / filesystem don't lie > about fsync. If they do, all bets are off, and this kind of failure > means you should really failover to another machine or restore a > backup. > > It's why you have to do possibly destructive tests to see if your > server stands at least some chance of surviving this kind of failure, > log shipping for recovery, and / or replication of another form (slony > etc...) to have a reliable server. > > The recommendations for recovery of data are just that, recovery > oriented. They can't fix a broken database at that point. You need > to take it offline after this kind of failure if you can't trust your > hardware. > > Usually when it finds something wrong it just won't start up. > > -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Naomi Walker Chief Information Officer Eldorado Computing, Inc nwalker@eldocomp.com ---An EDS Company 602-604-3100 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Hard things are put in our way, not to stop us, but to call out our courage and strength. -- Anonymous ------------------------------------------------------------------------