The postmaster keeps crashing

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POSTGRESQL BUG REPORT TEMPLATE
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Your name : Micah Yoder
Your email address : micah(at)yoderdev(dot)com

System Configuration
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Architecture (example: Intel Pentium) : Pentium 3 (Coppermine), SMP 2 CPUs

Operating System (example: Linux 2.0.26 ELF) : Linux sol.yoderdev.com
2.4.16-010stab017.17.777-smp #1 SMP Wed Mar 19 16:25:17 MSK 2003 i686 i686
i386 GNU/Linux
(This is a version of Linux running virtual servers. I have root on a virtual
server.)

PostgreSQL version (example: PostgreSQL-7.3.4): PostgreSQL-7.3.4

Compiler used (example: gcc 2.95.2) : gcc version 3.2 20020903 (Red Hat
Linux 8.0 3.2-7)

Please enter a FULL description of your problem:
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Postgres hard crashes once or twice a week!

It was running fine with 7.3.2 for several months. Then I installed
a phpBB site with a fair amount of traffic. That was over a month ago, and
Postgres has probably crashed maybe 6 to 8 times. Bind has also crashed a
couple times since then (and not before the phpBB install) so it's
possible that this isn't a PG issue. I've upgraded to 7.3.4 in the mean time,
and it still happens.

Here's what I get in my log file when it crashes:

LOG: ServerLoop: select failed: Cannot allocate memory
IpcSemaphoreInitialize: semctl(id=2392067, 10, SETVAL, 0) failed: Invalid
argument

[ Followed by several pages of this: ^(at)^@^(at)^@^@
and finally: ]

PGSemaphoreUnlock: semop(id=2228227) failed: Identifier removed
PGSemaphoreLock: semop(id=2228227) failed: Identifier removed
PGSemaphoreLock: semop(id=2195458) failed: Identifier removed
PGSemaphoreLock: semop(id=2228227) failed: Identifier removed

Also recently there have been some weird database issues, probably related to
the improper shutdown:

1. One of the topics in my phpBB database had a duplicate entry. The two were
the same in most fields INCLUDING THE PRIMARY KEY!!! At least one field was
different, the one that contained the number of views of that topic.

2. On another site, new users are usually not listed in the user list until
you hit Refresh on the browser a couple times. This behavior is recent and
seems inexplicable except for internal database weirdness. (There isn't any
caching, the user list comes from a straight DB query.)

Please describe a way to repeat the problem. Please try to provide a
concise reproducible example, if at all possible:
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I don't think that's possible. It seems pretty random and likely unique to my
site. Please let me know if there's anything I can check or any settings I
can try changing.

If you know how this problem might be fixed, list the solution below:
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Really no idea. I am wondering if you all think this sounds like a hardware
problem. If so, I'd appreciate knowing that. If not, I'll try to collect
more info for you.

Thanks!

--
Yoder Internet Development
Honest and Affordable Web Development and Linux consulting
http://yoderdev.com