Re: stability issues

"Willy-Bas Loos" <willybas(at)gmail(dot)com> writes:
> I'm running a PostgreSQL 8.1.9 server on Debian etch (default installation,
> w/ PostGIS from Debian repositories).
> The machine has double Xeon 5130, 4 GB of DDR2 ECC Reg. RAM and a
> two-sata-disc Raid 0 cluster. I don't know the brand of the memory nor the
> HDDs. The Riad controller is a 3Ware 8006-2.

> Lately i've been confronted by some failures in several PostgreSQL clusters.
> 3 weeks ago a cluster crashed when i was reindexing it, beond my repair.
> Last week we've been getting Toast warnings and shared index problems on
> another cluster. I solved the shared index issue, but the Toast trouble
> remained, in more than one database on that cluster. I dumped the databases,
> created another cluster and shut the troubled one down. (problems were
> solved).
> I've asked our provider to do a filesystem check, (e2fsck -f /dev/sda1)
> which indicated that "there's nothing wrong with the filesystem".

> This doesn't feel right.

No, it sure doesn't. It sounds to me like the hardware is getting
flaky. Memory tests might be the first thing to run. There's also the
old clean-and-reseat-all-the-boards-and-connectors exercise...

regards, tom lane