Re: Hard limit on WAL space used (because PANIC sucks)

On 06/06/2013 09:30 PM, Jeff Janes wrote:

> Archiving
> ---------
>
> In some ways, this is the simplest case. Really, we just need a way to
> know when the available WAL space has become 90% full, and abort
> archiving at that stage. Once we stop attempting to archive, we can
> clean up the unneeded log segments.
>
>
> I would oppose that as the solution, either an unconditional one, or
> configurable with is it as the default. Those segments are not
> unneeded. I need them. That is why I set up archiving in the first
> place. If you need to shut down the database rather than violate my
> established retention policy, then shut down the database.

Agreed and I would oppose it even as configurable. We set up the
archiving for a reason. I do think it might be useful to be able to
store archiving logs as well as wal_keep_segments logs in a different
location than pg_xlog.

>
> What we need is a better way for the DBA to find out that archiving is
> falling behind when it first starts to fall behind. Tailing the log and
> examining the rather cryptic error messages we give out isn't very
> effective.
>
>
> The archive command can be made a shell script (or that matter a
> compiled program) which can do anything it wants upon failure, including
> emailing people.

Yep, that is what PITRTools does. You can make it do whatever you want.

JD