Received: from localhost (pluto.hub.org [200.46.204.4]) by postgresql.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D487C9FA088 for ; Thu, 16 Nov 2006 13:08:08 -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 57605-05 for ; Thu, 16 Nov 2006 13:07:48 -0400 (AST) X-Greylist: from auto-whitelisted by SQLgrey- Received: from svr4.postgresql.org (svr4.postgresql.org [66.98.251.159]) by postgresql.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id BF6929FA004 for ; Thu, 16 Nov 2006 13:08:00 -0400 (AST) X-Greylist: domain auto-whitelisted by SQLgrey-1.7.3 Received: from mail.metronet.co.uk (mail.metronet.co.uk [213.162.97.75]) by svr4.postgresql.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E118F5AFA26 for ; Thu, 16 Nov 2006 17:07:58 +0000 (GMT) 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 721BB75B8E; Thu, 16 Nov 2006 17:07:07 +0000 (GMT) Received: from [192.168.1.17] (client17.office.archonet.com [192.168.1.17]) by mainbox.archonet.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 574AE15EAB; Thu, 16 Nov 2006 17:07:06 +0000 (GMT) Message-ID: <455C9B59.7000402@archonet.com> Date: Thu, 16 Nov 2006 17:09:45 +0000 From: Richard Huxton User-Agent: Thunderbird 1.5.0.7 (X11/20060918) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: "Craig A. James" Cc: Russell Smith , 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> <455C420D.8090209@archonet.com> <455C993E.5050403@modgraph-usa.com> In-Reply-To: <455C993E.5050403@modgraph-usa.com> 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: 200611/121 X-Sequence-Number: 21891 Craig A. James wrote: > Russell Smith wrote: >>> For the third time today, our server has crashed... >> >> I would guess it's the linux OOM if you are running linux. You need to >> turn off killing of processes when you run out of memory. Are you >> getting close to running out of memory? > > Good suggestion, it was a memory leak in an add-on library that we plug > in to the Postgres server. > > OOM? Can you give me a quick pointer to what this acronym stands for > and how I can reconfigure it? Out Of Memory > It sounds like a "feature" old UNIX > systems like SGI IRIX had, where the system would allocate virtual > memory that it didn't really have, then kill your process if you tried > to use it. That's it. > I.e. malloc() would never return NULL even if swap space was > over allocated. Is this what you're talking about? Having this enabled > on a server is deadly for reliability. Indeed. See the manuals for details. Section 16.4.3 http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.1/static/kernel-resources.html#AEN18128 -- Richard Huxton Archonet Ltd