Re: Checkpoint Err on Startup of Rsynced System

On Tuesday, May 31, 2016 10:13:14 AM Jim Longwill wrote:
> I am trying to setup a 2nd, identical, db server (M2) for development
> and I've run into a problem with starting up the 2nd Postgres installation.
>
> Here's what I've done:
> 1) did a 'clone' of 1st (production) machine M1 (so both machines on
> Cent OS 7.2)
> 2) setup an rsync operation, did a complete 'rsync' from M1 to M2
> 3) did a final 'CHECKPOINT' command on M1 postgres
> 4) shutdown postgres on M1 with 'pg_ctl stop'
> 5) did final 'rsync' operation (then restarted postgres on M1 with
> 'pg_ctl start')
> 6) tried to startup postgres on M2
>
> It won't start, & in the log file gives the error message:
> ...
> < 2016-05-31 09:02:52.337 PDT >LOG: invalid primary checkpoint record
> < 2016-05-31 09:02:52.337 PDT >LOG: invalid secondary checkpoint record
> < 2016-05-31 09:02:52.337 PDT >PANIC: could not locate a valid
> checkpoint record
> < 2016-05-31 09:02:53.184 PDT >LOG: startup process (PID 26680) was
> terminated by signal 6: Aborted
> < 2016-05-31 09:02:53.184 PDT >LOG: aborting startup due to startup
> process failure
>
> I've tried several times to do this but always get this result. So, do
> I need to do a new 'initdb..' operation on machine M2 + restore from M1
> backups? Or is there another way to fix this?

What you describe should work fine. In order of likelihood of why it doesnt, I
could guess:

1 - you're not waiting for the database to fully shut down before running the
last rsync
2 - you're not in fact rsync'ing the entire data directory
3 - the target server is running a different version of PostgreSQL or has a
different machine architecture