Andrew Biagioni <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
On three different machines running the same PostgreSQL version (7.3.5) on Linux and almost identical databases, I have been plagued by occasional, unexplainable (to me) reboots of the computer.
Postgres can *not* cause a system reboot; it's only an unprivileged user process. (but see *) You are dealing with either kernel bugs, hardware errors, or some other root-level process requesting a reboot.
This is one thing I was hoping to hear; any hints on kernel bug issues (or logs of causes)?
Even though it being three different machines would seem to rule out hardware issues, I'd not jump to that conclusion ... you might be having some kind of common-mode hardware failure. Two questions to ask here: * did you buy all the RAM from the same vendor? * is the power utility flaky where you live? (If you say "but I've got a UPS", how old are its batteries?)
My money would be on a kernel bug though. Are you up2date on kernel patches?
kernel patches, yes; kernel versions, no...
regards, tom lane
(*) ObFinePrint: at least, PG can't directly trigger a reboot. One scenario to think about is flaky RAM in an address range that doesn't get used until the machine is under significant load --- since you say Postgres is the only significant load on the machine, it's entirely possible that triggering of a hardware failure is closely correlated to what Postgres is doing. Similar remarks apply to broken disk hardware.
I just got a suggestion to run badblocks and memtest86, to check the hardware; that and an updated kernel should help me figure out what is going on...
Thanks,
Andrew
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