"Andrew Hall" <temp02@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
We haven't been able to isolate what causes it but it's unlikely to be hardware as it happens on quite a few of our customer's boxes.
Okay, then not hardware; but it seems like you ought to be in a position to create a test case for other people to poke at. I don't insist on a 100% reproducible case, but something that will show the problem if run for awhile would be a great help.
His original statement prompts a question in my mind. I may be wrong here, but when he noted:
'We also use XFS on linux 2.6 as a file system, so the FS should be fairly tolerant to power-outages.'
Is Andrew indicating here that there might be some issues with power loss on some of these boxes? If so, is it reasonable to assume that the filesystem is able to maintain the database integrity in such a power loss? I understand that XFS is quite a robust file system, but I can't see relying on such robustness for database integrity (or any file integrity for that matter). UPS's might be a better solution.
So the actual question in my mind that I didn't see anyone touch on is, is it safe to assume that a power outage will not affect the database integrity based on the robustness of the file system type?
Personally, I would not rely on such, but I'd like to hear what the Postgresql experts think about this issue.
Then again, I may have read too much into Andrew's post. Andrew, do you assume there have been power issues with any of these machines? Are you comfortable relying on the filesystem to deal with such issues?
Ideally, I would research any corrolation between power outages and the database problems. If there are no power outages to speak of, then sorry for yapping up the wrong woody perennial plant.
Really just fishing for some insights here folks.
-- Until later, Geoffrey
---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 5: Have you checked our extensive FAQ?
http://www.postgresql.org/docs/faq
