Re: Strange error

Hi all,

I wonder what caused the error we just got on a postgres 8.0.3 data base
(using JDBC to connect, but I guess that's not really relevant for this
error):

[snip stack trace]
Caused by: org.postgresql.util.PSQLException: ERROR: could not access
status of transaction 0
[snip]

Could it be some kind of data corruption?

The data base was created/started up using the hot-standby procedure
described here:
http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.0/static/backup-online.html
with some custom archive_command/restore_command scripts in place to
keep the standby running and up to date.

This time it was actually the switch back from the original stand-by
functioning now as master after we had to put it in production after the
original master machine stopped responding (which later turned out to be
caused by a too many files opened in the system error).

The machine is still running without restart after finishing recovery. I
wonder if restarting it will solve any reminiscent problems or some more
work is needed ?

TIA,
Csaba.

OK, I should have included the postgres log this in the first place
beside only the JDBC log:

ERROR: could not access status of transaction 0
DETAIL: could not create file "/postgresdata/pg_subtrans/04E7": Die
Datei existiert bereits

The german text means "the file exists already".

Any advice of what should I do/check next ?

Thanks,
Csaba.

On Mon, 2005-10-17 at 17:21, Csaba Nagy wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I wonder what caused the error we just got on a postgres 8.0.3 data base
> (using JDBC to connect, but I guess that's not really relevant for this
> error):
>
> [snip stack trace]
> Caused by: org.postgresql.util.PSQLException: ERROR: could not access
> status of transaction 0
> [snip]
>
> Could it be some kind of data corruption?
>
> The data base was created/started up using the hot-standby procedure
> described here:
> http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.0/static/backup-online.html
> with some custom archive_command/restore_command scripts in place to
> keep the standby running and up to date.
>
> This time it was actually the switch back from the original stand-by
> functioning now as master after we had to put it in production after the
> original master machine stopped responding (which later turned out to be
> caused by a too many files opened in the system error).
>
> The machine is still running without restart after finishing recovery. I
> wonder if restarting it will solve any reminiscent problems or some more
> work is needed ?
>
> TIA,
> Csaba.
>

Csaba Nagy <nagy(at)ecircle-ag(dot)com> writes:
> ERROR: could not access status of transaction 0
> DETAIL: could not create file "/postgresdata/pg_subtrans/04E7": Die
> Datei existiert bereits

> The german text means "the file exists already".

I think we've finally identified the reason for this:
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-committers/2006-01/msg00287.php

regards, tom lane