Re: Autovacuum seems to block database: WARNING worker took too long to start

Not sure what you mean.

Once we start getting that error in the postgres log, there is no autovacuum
entry. Only that error message once every minute (and as i wrote in my last
email, the same message all the time).

The question is what is causing postgres to stop working. Autovacuum or
another reason? If it's another reason ... what could it be?

thanks in advance for your help

2010/11/16 Alvaro Herrera <alvherre(at)commandprompt(dot)com>

> Excerpts from Pablo Delgado Díaz-Pache's message of lun nov 15 04:52:53
> -0300 2010:
>
> > > But it strikes me that the code comment is wrong in one significant
> way:
> > > if the postmaster were failing to heed SIGUSR1 at all, you could reach
> > > the timeout here, because the fork-failed signal wouldn't get sent.
>
> Hmm, yeah, I guess I wasn't considering the idea that postmaster was so
> busy with something else that it wouldn't be able to respond to the
> launcher's requests. As you say, if it went away entirely, autovacuum
> would also suicide.
>
> > > Could you try strace'ing the postmaster process to see what it's doing
> > > when this is happening?
> >
> > I definitely will.
>
> Yes, please.
>
> --
> Álvaro Herrera <alvherre(at)commandprompt(dot)com>
> The PostgreSQL Company - Command Prompt, Inc.
> PostgreSQL Replication, Consulting, Custom Development, 24x7 support
>