hi all by unknown reason our database server rebooted couple hours ago. now i cannot restart posgresql 8.1 heres the error code i get: ===================================================== root@eddie:/var/run# /etc/init.d/postgresql-8.1 start Starting PostgreSQL 8.1 database server: mainThe PostgreSQL server failed to start. Please check the log output: 2007-07-03 19:20:42 EDT 2928 FATAL: could not create shared memory segment: Invalid argument 2007-07-03 19:20:42 EDT 2928 DETAIL: Failed system call was shmget(key=5432001, size=3276259328, 03600). 2007-07-03 19:20:42 EDT 2928 HINT: This error usually means that PostgreSQL's request for a shared memory segment exceeded your kernel's SHMMAX parameter. You can either reduce the request size or reconfigure the kernel with larger SHMMAX. To reduce the request size (currently 3276259328 bytes), reduce PostgreSQL's shared_buffers parameter (currently 393216) and/or its max_connections parameter (currently 250). If the request size is already small, it's possible that it is less than your kernel's SHMMIN parameter, in which case raising the request size or reconfiguring SHMMIN is called for. The PostgreSQL documentation contains more information about shared memory configuration. failed! ======================================================= heres my sysctl: kernel.shmmax=4294967296 kernel.shmall=536870912 Any help will be really appreciated Thanks