Groups > comp.databases.postgresql > #854

PostgreSQL 10.3 leaving "exiting" (defunct) processes on AIX platform

X-Received	by 2002:ac8:2b82:: with SMTP id m2mr3907155qtm.11.1552940881451; Mon, 18 Mar 2019 13:28:01 -0700 (PDT)
X-Received	by 2002:a81:1b02:: with SMTP id b2mr15347595ywb.268.1552940881246; Mon, 18 Mar 2019 13:28:01 -0700 (PDT)
Path	csiph.com!4.us.feeder.erje.net!feeder.erje.net!feeder.usenetexpress.com!feeder-in1.iad1.usenetexpress.com!border1.nntp.dca1.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!h4no56700qtn.0!news-out.google.com!d8ni2331qtr.1!nntp.google.com!h4no56698qtn.0!postnews.google.com!glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail
Newsgroups	comp.databases.postgresql
Date	Mon, 18 Mar 2019 13:28:00 -0700 (PDT)
Complaints-To	groups-abuse@google.com
Injection-Info	glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups.com; posting-host=198.168.207.245; posting-account=gcOmbwoAAADzWzruEtK9z7q2W7MAigL1
NNTP-Posting-Host	198.168.207.245
User-Agent	G2/1.0
MIME-Version	1.0
Message-ID	<9ca2169a-3b2d-4631-a5ef-a6f20c36fcdd@googlegroups.com> (permalink)
Subject	PostgreSQL 10.3 leaving "exiting" (defunct) processes on AIX platform
From	inverasln@gmail.com
Injection-Date	Mon, 18 Mar 2019 20:28:01 +0000
Content-Type	text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
Content-Transfer-Encoding	quoted-printable
Lines	46
Xref	csiph.com comp.databases.postgresql:854

Show key headers only | View raw

Curious to know if anyone else has experienced this issue before.

I have a Postgresql 10.3 database on AIX 7.1 platform and this usually does not give us any problems. But after a recent install on a server that's handling about 275 users, we suddenly started seeing "exiting" processes from every call to open the database.

Now when the problem first starts, the exiting processes disappear after a few seconds. This is normal. But the busier the system gets, the longer it takes for them to disappear until it could be stuck there for hours. And the problem is that these exiting processes appear to still use up one or more of the max_connections, leading to a situation where we run out of connections.

Here's an example of what I'm referring to:

# ps -ef |grep exiting |wc -l
6250

# ps -ef |grep exiting |tail -5
- 33818386 - - - <exiting>
- 33949478 - - - <exiting>
- 34015016 - - - <exiting>
- 34080578 - - - <exiting>
- 34211634 - - - <exiting>

# proctree 33818386
4653070 /apps/pg_10.3/bin/postgres
33818386 <defunct>

According to IBM AIX documentation, the exiting/defunct process will wait until the parent PID replies that it no longer needs the exit status of the subprocess. And so it looks like PostgreSQL may not be sending that reply, or is somehow delayed.

Has anyone else experienced a similar issue? I'm wondering if I need to update my O/S which is already at a pretty current level, or perhaps arrange to update the Postgres database to 10.6 or higher.

I guess my question: Is this potentially a bug in Postgres and how it releases processes?

Thx

Steve N.

Back to comp.databases.postgresql | Previous | Next — Next in thread | Find similar

Thread

PostgreSQL 10.3 leaving "exiting" (defunct) processes on AIX platform inverasln@gmail.com - 2019-03-18 13:28 -0700
  Re: PostgreSQL 10.3 leaving "exiting" (defunct) processes on AIX platform Laurenz Albe <laurenz@nospam.pn> - 2019-03-18 23:05 +0000
    Re: PostgreSQL 10.3 leaving "exiting" (defunct) processes on AIX platform inverasln@gmail.com - 2019-03-20 10:53 -0700
      Re: PostgreSQL 10.3 leaving "exiting" (defunct) processes on AIX platform Laurenz Albe <laurenz@nospam.pn> - 2019-03-20 18:24 +0000

csiph-web