Thread: Re: FATAL: terminating connection due to administrator command

The exact message i saw is this:

LOG:  received fast shutdown request
LOG:  aborting any active transactions
FATAL:  terminating connection due to administrator command

so does this mean that someone is trying to stop postmaster by sending it a kill signal?

i also have these questions:

1. many times i have seen two instances of postmaster running. how does that happen and how to prevent it from happening?

2. into the logfile (which i specify at the time of starting postmaster), i want to add timestamps, for each log/warning etc. How do i do that?

thanks,
regards
Surabhi

-----Original Message-----
From: Tom Lane [mailto:tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us]
Sent: Fri 1/13/2006 8:56 PM
To: surabhi.ahuja
Cc: pgsql-general@postgresql.org
Subject: Re: [GENERAL] FATAL: terminating connection due to administrator command

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"surabhi.ahuja" <surabhi.ahuja@iiitb.ac.in> writes:
> why is it coming:
> FATAL:  terminating connection due to administrator command

Something sent the backend a SIGTERM signal.  With no more information
than that, it's difficult to say more.

                        regards, tom lane

surabhi.ahuja wrote:
> The exact message i saw is this:
>
> LOG:  received fast shutdown request LOG:  aborting any active
> transactions FATAL:  terminating connection due to administrator
> command
>
> so does this mean that someone is trying to stop postmaster by
> sending it a kill signal?

Someone or something. It can be Linux's out-of-memory facility picking
processes to kill. Google "oom killer" for discussion. It would need to
be sent from the postgres user or root though (or a process running as
them).

> i also have these questions:
>
> 1. many times i have seen two instances of postmaster running. how
> does that happen and how to prevent it from happening?

Shouldn't (unless you have two installations of course). You shouldn't
have to do anything to prevent it from happening. Try and capture
details of the processes with "ps aux" and "pstree" if you can.

> 2. into the logfile (which i specify at the time of starting
> postmaster), i want to add timestamps, for each log/warning etc. How
> do i do that?

See the manuals for details - run-time environment / error reporting and
logging.
   http://www.postgresql.org/docs/

--
   Richard Huxton
   Archonet Ltd

Richard Huxton <dev@archonet.com> writes:
> surabhi.ahuja wrote:
>> so does this mean that someone is trying to stop postmaster by
>> sending it a kill signal?

> Someone or something. It can be Linux's out-of-memory facility picking
> processes to kill. Google "oom killer" for discussion.

No, because the OOM killer invariably uses "kill -9".  "Fast shutdown"
means that something sent the postmaster a SIGINT.

If you launch the postmaster manually and are not careful to make it
dissociate from your terminal, then typing ^C at some unrelated program
later would be enough to make this happen ...

>> 1. many times i have seen two instances of postmaster running. how
>> does that happen and how to prevent it from happening?

> Shouldn't (unless you have two installations of course).

Perhaps he's not understanding the difference between the postmaster and
its child processes?  I don't believe he's actually got two postmasters
running (unless maybe in separate directories with separate ports, which
is hardly likely to be a setup one would create by accident).  There are
*very* extensive safety interlocks in place to prevent that.

            regards, tom lane