Re: pg_xlog-files not deleted on a standby after accidental server crash - Mailing list pgsql-admin

Hi there,

i am currently encountering a weird problem:

3 Days ago we had an accidental server crash on one of our database servers (system just restarted).

After it was up again, i restarted databases (we are running 4 instances of postgres on a 512GB / 64 Processor server). All databases came up fine again.

Afterwards i restarted the slave postgres instances (running on another physical server) and they could recover correctly and went ahead with receiving WAL via streaming replication. All fine so far.

Then i realized that only on 1 of the 4 slave instances, the WAL-File count under data/pg_xlog was raising and raising, seems like WAL files are not reused / deleted by postgres.

Afterwards i tried different things:

1. Restarted the slave multiple times without any effect on the xlog behaviour

2. Setting up the slave again from a fresh base backup of the master instance

3. Checking file permissions, even tried manually deleting a WAL-File under data/pg_xlog (which worked)

Now i'm running out of ideas why these files are not reused/deleted anymore.

I don't see any errors in the logfiles (not on slave, not on master).

Slave is only showing normal "restartpoint" logs:

Mar 24 10:51:10 ct-db1b ct-db1-1[65432]: [3-1] db=, user=, host= LOG:  restartpoint starting: time
Mar 24 10:53:42 ct-db1b ct-db1-1[65432]: [4-1] db=, user=, host= LOG:  restartpoint complete: wrote 21264 buffers (0.4%); 0 transaction log file(s) added, 0 removed, 16 recycled; write=149.345 s, sync=2.217 s, total=151.682 s; sync files=1156, longest=0.213 s, average=0.001 s
Mar 24 10:53:42 ct-db1b ct-db1-1[65432]: [5-1] db=, user=, host= LOG:  recovery restart point at C3/E9AD3258
Mar 24 10:53:42 ct-db1b ct-db1-1[65432]: [5-2] db=, user=, host= DETAIL:  last completed transaction was at log time 2015-03-24 09:53:42.247769+00
Mar 24 10:56:10 ct-db1b ct-db1-1[65432]: [6-1] db=, user=, host= LOG:  restartpoint starting: time
Mar 24 10:58:41 ct-db1b ct-db1-1[65432]: [7-1] db=, user=, host= LOG:  restartpoint complete: wrote 6402 buffers (0.1%); 0 transaction log file(s) added, 0 removed, 3 recycled; write=149.516 s, sync=1.101 s, total=150.757 s; sync files=729, longest=0.160 s, average=0.001 s
Mar 24 10:58:41 ct-db1b ct-db1-1[65432]: [8-1] db=, user=, host= LOG:  recovery restart point at C3/EDA836D8
Mar 24 10:58:41 ct-db1b ct-db1-1[65432]: [8-2] db=, user=, host= DETAIL:  last completed transaction was at log time 2015-03-24 09:58:40.611415+00
Mar 24 11:01:10 ct-db1b ct-db1-1[65432]: [9-1] db=, user=, host= LOG:  restartpoint starting: time
Mar 24 11:03:41 ct-db1b ct-db1-1[65432]: [10-1] db=, user=, host= LOG:  restartpoint complete: wrote 11746 buffers (0.2%); 0 transaction log file(s) added, 0 removed, 5 recycled; write=149.652 s, sync=0.936 s, total=150.725 s; sync files=672, longest=0.147 s, average=0.001 s
Mar 24 11:03:41 ct-db1b ct-db1-1[65432]: [11-1] db=, user=, host= LOG:  recovery restart point at C3/F046DA18
Mar 24 11:03:41 ct-db1b ct-db1-1[65432]: [11-2] db=, user=, host= DETAIL:  last completed transaction was at log time 2015-03-24 10:03:40.914148+00
Mar 24 11:06:10 ct-db1b ct-db1-1[65432]: [12-1] db=, user=, host= LOG:  restartpoint starting: time
Mar 24 11:08:41 ct-db1b ct-db1-1[65432]: [13-1] db=, user=, host= LOG:  restartpoint complete: wrote 11155 buffers (0.2%); 0 transaction log file(s) added, 0 removed, 4 recycled; write=149.780 s, sync=1.184 s, total=151.080 s; sync files=758, longest=0.184 s, average=0.001 s
Mar 24 11:08:41 ct-db1b ct-db1-1[65432]: [14-1] db=, user=, host= LOG:  recovery restart point at C3/F3C51B40
Mar 24 11:08:41 ct-db1b ct-db1-1[65432]: [14-2] db=, user=, host= DETAIL:  last completed transaction was at log time 2015-03-24 10:08:41.087379+00
Mar 24 11:11:10 ct-db1b ct-db1-1[65432]: [15-1] db=, user=, host= LOG:  restartpoint starting: time
Mar 24 11:13:41 ct-db1b ct-db1-1[65432]: [16-1] db=, user=, host= LOG:  restartpoint complete: wrote 12602 buffers (0.2%); 0 transaction log file(s) added, 0 removed, 2 recycled; write=149.632 s, sync=1.309 s, total=151.067 s; sync files=728, longest=0.203 s, average=0.001 s
Mar 24 11:13:41 ct-db1b ct-db1-1[65432]: [17-1] db=, user=, host= LOG:  recovery restart point at C3/F93AC8F0
Mar 24 11:13:41 ct-db1b ct-db1-1[65432]: [17-2] db=, user=, host= DETAIL:  last completed transaction was at log time 2015-03-24 10:13:41.168975+00
Mar 24 11:16:10 ct-db1b ct-db1-1[65432]: [18-1] db=, user=, host= LOG:  restartpoint starting: time
Mar 24 11:18:41 ct-db1b ct-db1-1[65432]: [19-1] db=, user=, host= LOG:  restartpoint complete: wrote 10234 buffers (0.2%); 0 transaction log file(s) added, 0 removed, 0 recycled; write=149.411 s, sync=1.175 s, total=150.703 s; sync files=821, longest=0.142 s, average=0.001 s
Mar 24 11:18:41 ct-db1b ct-db1-1[65432]: [20-1] db=, user=, host= LOG:  recovery restart point at C3/FDD61320
Mar 24 11:18:41 ct-db1b ct-db1-1[65432]: [20-2] db=, user=, host= DETAIL:  last completed transaction was at log time 2015-03-24 10:18:41.052593+00
Mar 24 11:21:10 ct-db1b ct-db1-1[65432]: [21-1] db=, user=, host= LOG:  restartpoint starting: time
Mar 24 11:23:40 ct-db1b ct-db1-1[65432]: [22-1] db=, user=, host= LOG:  restartpoint complete: wrote 9105 buffers (0.2%); 0 transaction log file(s) added, 0 removed, 0 recycled; write=149.598 s, sync=0.842 s, total=150.579 s; sync files=687, longest=0.061 s, average=0.001 s
Mar 24 11:23:40 ct-db1b ct-db1-1[65432]: [23-1] db=, user=, host= LOG:  recovery restart point at C4/290A078
Mar 24 11:23:40 ct-db1b ct-db1-1[65432]: [23-2] db=, user=, host= DETAIL:  last completed transaction was at log time 2015-03-24 10:23:40.446308+00