We are using postgresql 8.3 database for last 5 yrs for this production database and its running fine.
Man. You really should consider upgrading to a more recent version. If you are running "fine" with 8.3 you'll be running fantastically fine on 9.3... :-)
Also, 8.3 is EOL now. People shouldn't be using it anymore.
This is our critical database which runs 24*7. This weekend we started getting these messages
HINT: To avoid a database shutdown, execute a full-database VACUUM. WARNING: database must be vacuumed within 8439472 transactions
i am currently running this command
vacuumdb --analyze db
while this command is running i m still getting these messages
WARNING: database must be vacuumed within 2645303 transactions.
If your VACUUM is still running, it may be a simple problem of waiting it (and hopping for it to finish before you run out of transactions). You shouldn't be using --analyze there, because it is not necessary for this case and may slow down the VACUUM.
Another problem you need to consider is that if there is a really old transaction (about 2bi old) opened that is preventing VACUUM to lower relfrozenxid on tables. To do this you first need to check for very old sessions at pg_stat_activity and also (if you use prepared transaction) query pg_prepared_xacts, if something old is there you must finish it either with ROLLBACK PREPARED or (less likely) COMMIT PREPARED.
Regards,
-- Matheus de Oliveira Analista de Banco de Dados Dextra Sistemas - MPS.Br nível F! www.dextra.com.br/postgres
