Re: Block Read Error: Success? - Mailing list pgsql-admin

From Tom Lane
Subject Re: Block Read Error: Success?
Date
Msg-id 24012.1202938787@sss.pgh.pa.us
Whole thread Raw
In response to Block Read Error: Success?  ("Thomas F. O'Connell" <tf@o.ptimized.com>)
List pgsql-admin
"Thomas F. O'Connell" <tf@o.ptimized.com> writes:
> A few days ago, we began seeing this error in our logs:
> ERROR:  could not read block [redacted] of relation [redacted]: Success

> I've encountered "could not read block" errors in other databases in
> the past, but have never witnessed the "Success" tag at the end. What
> does that mean?

What this means is a read past EOF --- that is, read() returned fewer
bytes than requested (perhaps none at all) but did not signal an error.
A potential ultimate cause is corrupt indexes that contain pointers
leading past the end of the table.  Which sounds a whole lot like the
VACUUM bug fixed in 8.0.14 and other recent releases.

> We're running 8.0.13 on FC3. Is there any reason not to suspect the
> hardware at this point?

I'd question your choice of platform --- FC3 went EOL quite some time
ago.

            regards, tom lane

pgsql-admin by date:

Previous
From: "Leticia Larrosa"
Date:
Subject: terminating connection because of crash of another server process
Next
From: "Scott Marlowe"
Date:
Subject: Re: terminating connection because of crash of another server process