Re: Re: [COMMITTERS] pgsql: Make standby server continuously retry restoring the next WAL

Fujii Masao wrote:
> I found another missing feature in new file-based log shipping (i.e.,
> standby_mode is enabled and 'cp' is used as restore_command).
>
> After the trigger file is found, the startup process with pg_standby
> tries to replay all of the WAL files in both pg_xlog and the archive.
> So, when the primary fails, if the latest WAL file in pg_xlog of the
> primary can be read, we can prevent the data loss by copying it to
> pg_xlog of the standby before creating the trigger file.
>
> On the other hand, the startup process with standby mode doesn't
> replay the WAL files in pg_xlog after the trigger file is found. So
> failover always causes the data loss even if the latest WAL file can
> be read from the primary. And if the latest WAL file is copied to the
> archive instead, it can be replayed but a PANIC error would happen
> because it's not filled.
>
> We should remove this restriction?

Looking into this, I realized that we have a bigger problem related to
this. Although streaming replication stores the streamed WAL files in
pg_xlog, so that they can be re-replayed after a standby restart without
connecting to the master, we don't try to replay those either. So if you
restart standby, it will fail to start up if the WAL it needs can't be
found in archive or by connecting to the master. That must be fixed.

I'd imagine that the ability to restore WAL files manually copied to
pg_xlog will fall out of that fix too.

--
Heikki Linnakangas
EnterpriseDB http://www.enterprisedb.com