Hi John Yes that's the whole messege # free -m total used free shared buffers cached Mem: 8079 1770 6309 0 95 549 -/+ buffers/cache: 1125 6953 Swap: 1023 0 1023 Thanks -----Original Message----- From: pgsql-general-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:pgsql-general-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of John R Pierce Sent: Wednesday, April 24, 2013 7:58 AM To: pgsql-general@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: Re: FATAL: shmat(id=3342337) failed: Cannot allocate memory On 4/23/2013 10:53 PM, Khangelani Gama wrote: > We are running postgres 9.1 on CentOS 5. We can't start up postgres . > It complains about memory allocation . Please help > > FATAL: shmat(id=3342337) failed: Cannot allocate memory > is that the entire error message? it usually says something about setting kernel.shmmax and/or shmall... for most flavors of linux, you set these in /etc/sysctl.conf (and then update the live system with "sysctl -p"). -- john r pierce 37N 122W somewhere on the middle of the left coast -- Sent via pgsql-general mailing list (pgsql-general@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-general CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE The contents of and attachments to this e-mail are intended for the addressee only, and may contain the confidential information of Argility (Proprietary) Limited and/or its subsidiaries. Any review, use or dissemination thereof by anyone other than the intended addressee is prohibited.If you are not the intended addressee please notify the writer immediately and destroy the e-mail. Argility (Proprietary) Limited and its subsidiaries distance themselves from and accept no liability for unauthorised use of their e-mail facilities or e-mails sent other than strictly for business purposes. -- Sent via pgsql-general mailing list (pgsql-general@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-general