Received: from localhost (pluto.hub.org [200.46.204.4]) by postgresql.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9D5C89F93E4 for ; Thu, 16 Nov 2006 06:46:18 -0400 (AST) Received: from postgresql.org ([200.46.204.71]) by localhost (mx1.hub.org [200.46.204.4]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id 84014-08 for ; Thu, 16 Nov 2006 06:46:08 -0400 (AST) X-Greylist: from auto-whitelisted by SQLgrey- Received: from mail.metronet.co.uk (mail.metronet.co.uk [213.162.97.75]) by postgresql.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7F7409F93C9 for ; Thu, 16 Nov 2006 06:46:17 -0400 (AST) Received: from mainbox.archonet.com (84-51-143-99.archon037.adsl.metronet.co.uk [84.51.143.99]) by smtp.metronet.co.uk (MetroNet Mail) with ESMTP id D955875474; Thu, 16 Nov 2006 10:46:08 +0000 (GMT) Received: from [192.168.1.17] (client17.office.archonet.com [192.168.1.17]) by mainbox.archonet.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id D27CD15EAB; Thu, 16 Nov 2006 10:46:07 +0000 (GMT) Message-ID: <455C420D.8090209@archonet.com> Date: Thu, 16 Nov 2006 10:48:45 +0000 From: Richard Huxton User-Agent: Thunderbird 1.5.0.7 (X11/20060918) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Russell Smith Cc: "Craig A. James" , pgsql-performance@postgresql.org Subject: Re: Postgres server crash References: <20061023215913.GW26892@nasby.net> <20061025001709.GA26892@nasby.net> <453EF7C4.2040105@modgraph-usa.com> <455BCAE8.8010905@modgraph-usa.com> <455BCCCD.2020701@pws.com.au> In-Reply-To: <455BCCCD.2020701@pws.com.au> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Virus-Scanned: Maia Mailguard 1.0.1 X-Archive-Number: 200611/119 X-Sequence-Number: 21889 Russell Smith wrote: > Craig A. James wrote: >> Questions: >> 1. Any idea what happened and how I can avoid this? It's a *big* >> problem. >> 2. Why didn't the database recover? Why are there two processes >> that couldn't be killed? I'm guessing it didn't recover *because* there were two processes that couldn't be killed. Responsibility for that falls to the operating-system. I've seen it most often with faulty drivers or hardware that's being communicated with/written to. However, see below. >> 3. Where did the "signal 9" come from? (Nobody but me ever logs >> in to the server machine.) >> > I would guess it's the linux OOM if you are running linux. If not, it means the server is hacked or haunted. Something outside PG issued a kill -9 and the OOM killer is the prime suspect I'd say. -- Richard Huxton Archonet Ltd