Re: Hung postmaster (8.3.9)

[Greg Smith <greg(at)2ndquadrant(dot)com>]

Ed L. wrote:
> 2010-02-27 20:11:10.426 CST [23134]    LOG:  database system was not properly shut down; automatic recovery in progress
> 2010-02-27 20:11:10.497 CST [23134]    LOG:  record with zero length at 8BC/63F6020
> 2010-02-27 20:11:10.497 CST [23134]    LOG:  redo is not required
>   

If the server is hung at this point, it was doing something:  recovery 
from a crash, and during that period it will not respond to statements 
until it's finished as you noted.  That can take some time, could run 
into the minutes.  And if you kill it, next time the process starts all 
over again having made no progress.

I'd try starting the server again, confirm it's only after this point it 
pauses at, watching if it's doing something with "top -c", and grab some 
backtraces of what it's doing then.  In this sample you gave, the 
shutdown was too fast for the server have done very recovery before it 
was killed off.  It may just be you need to let it sit there for a while 
to finish recovery and then it will be fine again, can't tell from the 
data you've provided so far.

--
Greg Smith  2ndQuadrant US  Baltimore, MD
PostgreSQL Training, Services and Support
greg(at)2ndQuadrant(dot)com   www.2ndQuadrant.us