PostgreSql crashed with error: 'server process (PID XXXX) was terminated by exception 0xC0000142'

Question

I have Postgresql 9.2 running on a 4G memory, Atom N2800 CPU Windows POS READY embedded system(like the XP) machine, basically it running fine for years in production environment, but crashed(service stopped) frequently in recent performance(not stress) testing.

I don't think the testing put too much stress, by enabled the log_min_duration_statement = 0, the simplified overall statistics for what the testing have done listed below:

say 20 minutes is a measure unit, so during one unit:

5000 times of UPDATE with each query contains 20KB size of data(contains a Text field).

35000 times of SELECT with each query returned 20KB size of data(to get that Text field).

the logs didn't see any abnormal until the crash and leave this:

2015-07-29 16:41:53.500 SGT,,,5512,,55b87f74.1588,2,,2015-07-29 15:23:32 SGT,,0,LOG,00000,"server process (PID 4416) was terminated by exception 0xC0000142",,"See C include file ""ntstatus.h"" for a description of the hexadecimal value.",,,,,,,""
2015-07-29 16:41:53.500 SGT,,,5512,,55b87f74.1588,3,,2015-07-29 15:23:32 SGT,,0,LOG,00000,"terminating any other active server processes",,,,,,,,,""
2015-07-29 16:41:53.500 SGT,"eps","transactiondatabase",6960,"127.0.0.1:9162",55b891cf.1b30,9,"idle",2015-07-29 16:41:51 SGT,146/0,0,WARNING,57P00,"terminating connection because of crash of another server process","The postmaster has commanded this server process to roll back the current transaction and exit, because another server process exited abnormally and possibly corrupted shared memory.","In a moment you should be able to reconnect to the database and repeat your command.",,,,,,,""
2015-07-29 16:41:53.515 SGT,"eps","transactiondatabase",5828,"127.0.0.1:9150",55b891c2.16c4,155,"idle",2015-07-29 16:41:38 SGT,145/0,0,WARNING,57P00,"terminating connection because of crash of another server process","The postmaster has commanded this server process to roll back the current transaction and exit, because another server process exited abnormally and possibly corrupted shared memory.","In a moment you should be able to reconnect to the database and repeat your command.",,,,,,,""
2015-07-29 16:41:53.515 SGT,"eps","transactiondatabase",6448,"127.0.0.1:9148",55b891c2.1930,5,"idle",2015-07-29 16:41:38 SGT,93/0,0,WARNING,57P00,"terminating connection because of crash of another server process","The postmaster has commanded this server process to roll back the current transaction and exit, because another server process exited abnormally and possibly corrupted shared memory.","In a moment you should be able to reconnect to the database and repeat your command.",,,,,,,""
....
....
2015-07-29 16:41:54.500 SGT,,,8004,,55b87f76.1f44,2,,2015-07-29 15:23:34 SGT,1/0,0,WARNING,57P00,"terminating connection because of crash of another server process","The postmaster has commanded this server process to roll back the current transaction and exit, because another server process exited abnormally and possibly corrupted shared memory.","In a moment you should be able to reconnect to the database and repeat your command.",,,,,,,""
2015-07-29 16:41:54.515 SGT,,,5512,,55b87f74.1588,4,,2015-07-29 15:23:32 SGT,,0,LOG,00000,"all server processes terminated; reinitializing",,,,,,,,,""
2015-07-29 16:42:04.515 SGT,,,5512,,55b87f74.1588,5,,2015-07-29 15:23:32 SGT,,0,FATAL,XX000,"pre-existing shared memory block is still in use",,"Check if there are any old server processes still running, and terminate them.",,,,,,,""
2015-07-29 16:51:02.078 SGT,,,5828,,55b893f6.16c4,1,,2015-07-29 16:51:02 SGT,,0,LOG,00000,"database system was interrupted; last known up at 2015-07-29 16:40:36 SGT",,,,,,,,,""
2015-07-29 16:51:02.093 SGT,,,5828,,55b893f6.16c4,2,,2015-07-29 16:51:02 SGT,,0,LOG,00000,"database system was not properly shut down; automatic recovery in progress",,,,,,,,,""
2015-07-29 16:51:02.109 SGT,,,5828,,55b893f6.16c4,3,,2015-07-29 16:51:02 SGT,,0,LOG,00000,"redo starts at 0/12C79578",,,,,,,,,""
2015-07-29 16:51:02.421 SGT,,,5828,,55b893f6.16c4,4,,2015-07-29 16:51:02 SGT,,0,LOG,00000,"unexpected pageaddr 0/1046A000 in log file 0, segment 19, offset 4628480",,,,,,,,,""
2015-07-29 16:51:02.421 SGT,,,5828,,55b893f6.16c4,5,,2015-07-29 16:51:02 SGT,,0,LOG,00000,"redo done at 0/13469FC8",,,,,,,,,""

one thing I could point is the database configuration of shared_buffers, now the settings is 256MB, it just there for no reason, does it help to increase this value?

Other major setting: max_connections=200, temp_buffers = 16MB,work_mem = 8MB

Anyone could help to check how the crash happened, or how to minimize the scope?

Answer 1

MSDN says:

• 0xC0000142
• STATUS_DLL_INIT_FAILED
• {DLL Initialization Failed} Initialization of the dynamic link library %hs failed. The process is terminating abnormally.

so it was a DLL loading issue and/or issue starting a new process. If I had to guess I'd say you might have hit limits on the number of open files, number of running processes, etc on your XP Embedded system. You might want to lower max_connections.