Re: Recovering db from cracked server

Don Doumakes wrote:
> I own a server that was recently cracked by, I presume, an incompetent
> script kiddie. Minutes after he bravely tagged the web site, the
> server went down hard and would not boot. I've built a new system.
>
> I need to recover a postgresql 7.2 database from the old hard drive,
> which is still readable. The postgresql data directory is intact. The
> latest version of postgresql is incompatible with 7.2.x, so I compiled
> postgresql-7.2.7 and attempted to run
>
> postgres -D copy_of_old_data_dir
>
> The error response (on stdout) is
>
> DEBUG: database system was shut down at 2005-02-20 21:54:33 CST
> DEBUG: checkpoint record is at 0/5CCA0AC
> DEBUG: redo record is at 0/5CCA0AC; undo record is at 0/0; shutdown
> TRUE
> DEBUG: next transaction id: 73360; next oid: 59092
> DEBUG: database system is ready
> FATAL 1: Database "postgres" does not exist in the system catalog.
> DEBUG: shutting down
> DEBUG: database system is shut down
>
> Am I close? or is this approach doomed? Suggestions gratefully
> accepted.

You're close - the only thing it was complaining about was the missing
"postgres" database. That's because it defaults to using the same
database as the username. Try
postgres -D copy_of_old_data_dir template1

Or use the name of your old database.

--
Richard Huxton
Archonet Ltd