Sounds like you have a corrupt wal files that you will have to reset the
wal logs with pgresetxlog.
http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.2/static/app-pgresetxlog.html
This will result in missing transactions so before you do this shutdown
postgres and make a copy of the database files first. That way if you
don't like what happens you can always go back to the way things were.
Also right now would be a good time to evaluate your backup strategy,
which is a different topic for a different thread, but I can certainly
help with that as well.
-David Hornsby
> version Postgresql 9.1.1 on centos5 x64
>
> We experience slow performance and found the server is running 3 vacuum
> process on the same db which use up 99% of CPU.
> Then we kill -9 one of those process which cause postgresql to crash and
> it
> tried to restart after the crash
> However when the starting process reach the last WAL files, it just stuck
> there
>
> pg_controldata shows the db is in Archive Recovery mode and when using
> psql
> to connect the db, it says FATAL: the database system starting up.
>
> I took a chance and upgrade to PostgreSql 9.1.2 and see if anything
> changed
> it still stuck at the end of recovery.
> pg_controldata shows db is in Crash recovery, but that probably different
> wording I think
> using psql to connect the db, it says FATAL: the database system is
> starting up.
>
> I pretty much run out of idea here.
> Can anyone help what to go from here?
>
> Samuel
>