Database Disappeared

[Roberts, Adam]

Some time ago (May 2004), we were making changes to a Postgresql server
to allow a host to connect (pg_hba.conf). When we restarted the server,
and restarted the AOLserver process, there was only one table left. All
the ACS tables were gone.

As we were troubleshooting the problem, we found the last known good
dump (I pg_dump every four hours) was a month previous (sometime in
April), when we made a change to ttracker_tickets's table.

From that time in April up unitl we last had this problem, openacs
worked fine, but the dumps were missing all ACS related tables.

We have encountered this exact same problem again today. Originally, we
thought it was due to a fault in our procedures in making the changes,
however, this time, no one was altering anything. This appears to have
happened sans any human intervention.

The following is a link to the last post we had with this same problem:
http://openacs.org/forums/message-vi...sage_id=185837

The following is a link to the post we made last friday about the
current problem:
http://openacs.org/forums/message-vi...sage_id=206092
We thought that this might be an AOLserver problem, however, through our
investigation and comments from posts to the OpenACS board, we believe
this is an error with PostgresSQL.
We are hoping that someone might have some ideas or any experience with
this. Thanks!!
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[Joshua D. Drake]

We thought that this might be an AOLserver problem, however, through our
investigation and comments from posts to the OpenACS board, we believe
this is an error with PostgresSQL.
We are hoping that someone might have some ideas or any experience with
this. Thanks!!
Are you vacuuming? How often?

Sincerely,

Joshua D. Drake

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[Tom Lane]

"Roberts, Adam" <Ad**********@echostar.com> writes:

The following is a link to the last post we had with this same problem:
http://openacs.org/forums/message-vi...sage_id=185837

Given the comment about 500M pg_clog, I would venture that you aren't
doing adequate vacuuming and have therefore run into a transaction ID
wraparound failure. 500Mb clog corresponds to 2 billion transactions
which is right about where things would blow up if you'd not done the
necessary database-wide vacuums; and the fact that clog hasn't gotten
truncated is pretty strong evidence that you didn't.

Please read the administrator's guide:
http://www.postgresql.org/docs/7.4/s...intenance.html
(adjust for your PG version as needed)

regards, tom lane

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