Thread: no entry on pg_database for a live database

no entry on pg_database for a live database

From
"Mark Steben"
Date:

I have a situation I thought was impossible.

 

I have a live postgres database with 4 application tables.  I can access it through PSQL.

But there is no record of this database on the PG_DATABASE catalog table.

And I therefore cannot perform a PG_DUMP backup because it errors with,

You guessed it, ‘No entry on pg_database’  We haven’t done backups

As these are workfile temporary tables. But I’ve primed one of these

Tables with permanent data for performance.

 

I’m running version 7.4.5.   Do I have to do a drop-recreate or is there

Some other way around this?

 

Any ideas would be appreciated

 

Mark Steben

Senior Database Administrator
@utoRevenue™
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Re: no entry on pg_database for a live database

From
Tom Lane
Date:
"Mark Steben" <msteben@autorevenue.com> writes:
> I have a live postgres database with 4 application tables.  I can access it
> through PSQL.
> But there is no record of this database on the PG_DATABASE catalog table.

Try vacuuming pg_database.

If that works, it means your routine vacuuming procedures need some
re-thinking, because they are missing (at least) pg_database.

> I'm running version 7.4.5.

You're doing yourself no favors by failing to update.  The current
release in that branch is 7.4.19.

            regards, tom lane

Re: no entry on pg_database for a live database

From
Shane Ambler
Date:
Mark Steben wrote:

>
> I'm running version 7.4.5.   Do I have to do a drop-recreate or is there
>
> Some other way around this?
>
>

There has been mention that some of the old versions of 7.x had data
critical issues that are fixed in newer updates.


My first suggestion would be to try it with 7.4.19 (using a copy of your
data files of course)


As well as planning an upgrade to 8.1 or 8.2



--

Shane Ambler
pgSQL (at) Sheeky (dot) Biz

Get Sheeky @ http://Sheeky.Biz

Re: no entry on pg_database for a live database

From
"Mark Steben"
Date:
Thanks Tom - that did the trick
We will be upgrading to 8.2 within the next couple weeks.

-----Original Message-----
From: Tom Lane [mailto:tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us]
Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2008 12:20 PM
To: Mark Steben
Cc: pgsql-admin@postgresql.org
Subject: Re: [ADMIN] no entry on pg_database for a live database

"Mark Steben" <msteben@autorevenue.com> writes:
> I have a live postgres database with 4 application tables.  I can access
it
> through PSQL.
> But there is no record of this database on the PG_DATABASE catalog table.

Try vacuuming pg_database.

If that works, it means your routine vacuuming procedures need some
re-thinking, because they are missing (at least) pg_database.

> I'm running version 7.4.5.

You're doing yourself no favors by failing to update.  The current
release in that branch is 7.4.19.

            regards, tom lane


Re: no entry on pg_database for a live database

From
Tom Lane
Date:
"Mark Steben" <msteben@autorevenue.com> writes:
> Thanks Tom - that did the trick

In that case, you were missing pg_database and probably other system
catalogs too in your vacuuming.

> We will be upgrading to 8.2 within the next couple weeks.

I'd recommend making sure you have vacuumed all system catalogs before
you try to pg_dump, else some of the catalog entries may be invisible
to pg_dump :-(

FWIW, 8.2 should be proof against this type of problem recurring,
because it takes proactive steps to avoid transaction ID wraparound.
7.4 left that up to the DBA ...

            regards, tom lane