Re: Shit happens

On Sun, 2011-01-02 at 10:31 +0100, Dick Kniep wrote:
> Hi list,
>
> Thanks for the clear answer. However, this is the simple answer that
> is also in the manual. Yes I know it is not directly possible to get
> that data, but I am quite desparate to get the data back. If one way
> or another the data is (except for the 4 days we really have no data
> for) accessible, we will write a program to recover the data into the
> production database. So if anyone of you knows about a way to access
> the actual data in the WAL file (or a reference where to find enough
> information to do this) I would be very happy.
>

The WAL segment files will contain a lot of information (including some
full page images), which may be enough to recover some of your data.
Obviously, you'll be missing most of the data from that 4-day period,
but there is some hope.

However, pulling that data out of the WAL and making sense out of it
will be tricky, indeed (as Radosław already mentioned).

Email lists are probably not the best way to make it through this kind
of tricky recovery. You might consider contacting one of the PostgreSQL
consulting companies:

http://www.postgresql.org/support/professional_support

where someone experienced with WAL recovery can help you personally.
Some of these organizations employ people who have done extensive
development on the WAL recovery system and know it _very_ well.

Regards,
Jeff Davis