Find and fix inconsistent indexes

Inconsistencies in database indexes can occur for a variety of reasons including software defects, hardware issues, or underlying changes in behavior such as sort order changes.

The PostgreSQL community has built tools to identify and remediate such issues. This includes tools like amcheck , which is recommended by the PostgreSQL community to identify consistency issues, including issues that earlier versions of PostgreSQL 14 exhibited.

This playbook is a reference for AlloyDB for PostgreSQL users who experience these consistency issues. The playbook provides information that helps PostgreSQL users identify and remediate inconsistent indexes.

Resolving an index's inconsistencies involves the following steps:

  1. Before you begin .

    Before you begin reindexing, you should back up your database, set the correct permissions, verify your psql client version, and enable the amcheck extension.

  2. Check for inconsistent indexes .

    One statement identifies unique and primary key violations, and another statement detects a variety of other inconsistencies.

  3. Fix the index's inconsistencies .

    Reindexing an index fixes all its inconsistencies. You may need to adjust your instance's memory settings to improve performance.

  4. Monitor reindexing operations .

    We recommend that you monitor the progress of the reindexing operation to ensure that the operation is progressing and is not blocked.

  5. Verify that the indexes are consistent .

    After you have successfully reindexed your index, we recommend that you verify that your index does not contain any inconsistencies.

Before you begin

Back up your AlloyDB cluster's data

To ensure that no data is lost during reindexing, we recommend that you back up your cluster's data. For more information, see Create an on-demand backup .

Set the alloydbsuperuser permission

To complete the steps on this page, you must have alloydbsuperuser permissions. For more information see AlloyDB's predefined PostgreSQL roles .

Ensure that the psql client version is 9.6 or higher

To complete the steps on this page, you must ensure that your psql client version is 9.6 or higher. Run the command psql --version to verify your current psql client version.

Enable the amcheck extension

To check for index inconsistencies, you must enable the amcheck extension.

Code Sample

  
CREATE  
EXTENSION  
amcheck ; 
  

Check for inconsistent indexes

The following sections describe how to check for inconsistent indexes by checking for an index's inconsistencies as well as unique and primary key violations.

Check for inconsistencies

In each database, run the following statement to check for inconsistencies:

Code Sample

 DO 
  
 $$ 
 DECLARE 
  
 r 
  
 RECORD 
 ; 
  
 version 
  
 varchar 
 ( 
 100 
 ); 
 BEGIN 
  
 RAISE 
  
 NOTICE 
  
 'Started relhasindex validation on database: %' 
 , 
  
 current_database 
 (); 
  
 FOR 
  
 r 
  
 IN 
  
 SELECT 
  
 indexrelid 
 :: 
 regclass 
  
 relname 
  
 FROM 
  
 pg_index 
  
 WHERE 
  
 indrelid 
  
 NOT 
  
 IN 
  
 ( 
 SELECT 
  
 oid 
  
 FROM 
  
 pg_class 
  
 WHERE 
  
 relhasindex 
 ) 
  
 LOOP 
  
 RAISE 
  
 LOG 
  
 'Failed to check index %: %' 
 , 
  
 r 
 . 
 relname 
 , 
  
 'relhasindex is false, want true' 
 ; 
  
 RAISE 
  
 WARNING 
  
 'Failed to check index %: %' 
 , 
  
 r 
 . 
 relname 
 , 
  
 'relhasindex is false, want true' 
 ; 
  
 END 
  
 LOOP 
 ; 
  
 RAISE 
  
 NOTICE 
  
 'Finished relhasindex validation on database: %' 
 , 
  
 current_database 
 (); 
  
 RAISE 
  
 NOTICE 
  
 'Started b-tree amcheck on database: %' 
 , 
  
 current_database 
 (); 
  
 SHOW 
  
 server_version 
  
 into 
  
 version 
 ; 
  
 SELECT 
  
 split_part 
 ( 
 version 
 , 
  
 '.' 
 , 
  
 1 
 ) 
  
 into 
  
 version 
 ; 
  
 FOR 
  
 r 
  
 IN 
  
 SELECT 
  
 c 
 . 
 oid 
 , 
  
 c 
 . 
 oid 
 :: 
 regclass 
  
 relname 
 , 
  
 i 
 . 
 indisunique 
  
 FROM 
  
 pg_index 
  
 i 
  
 JOIN 
  
 pg_opclass 
  
 op 
  
 ON 
  
 i 
 . 
 indclass 
 [ 
 0 
 ] 
  
 = 
  
 op 
 . 
 oid 
  
 JOIN 
  
 pg_am 
  
 am 
  
 ON 
  
 op 
 . 
 opcmethod 
  
 = 
  
 am 
 . 
 oid 
  
 JOIN 
  
 pg_class 
  
 c 
  
 ON 
  
 i 
 . 
 indexrelid 
  
 = 
  
 c 
 . 
 oid 
  
 JOIN 
  
 pg_namespace 
  
 n 
  
 ON 
  
 c 
 . 
 relnamespace 
  
 = 
  
 n 
 . 
 oid 
  
 WHERE 
  
 am 
 . 
 amname 
  
 = 
  
 'btree' 
  
 AND 
  
 c 
 . 
 relpersistence 
  
 != 
  
 't' 
  
 AND 
  
 c 
 . 
 relkind 
  
 = 
  
 'i' 
  
 AND 
  
 i 
 . 
 indisready 
  
 AND 
  
 i 
 . 
 indisvalid 
  
 LOOP 
  
 BEGIN 
  
 RAISE 
  
 NOTICE 
  
 'Checking index %:' 
 , 
  
 r 
 . 
 relname 
 ; 
  
 PERFORM 
  
 bt_index_check 
 ( 
 index 
  
 => 
  
 r 
 . 
 oid 
 , 
  
 heapallindexed 
  
 => 
  
 r 
 . 
 indisunique 
 ); 
  
 EXCEPTION 
  
 WHEN 
  
 undefined_function 
  
 THEN 
  
 RAISE 
  
 EXCEPTION 
  
 'Failed to find the amcheck extension' 
 ; 
  
 WHEN 
  
 OTHERS 
  
 THEN 
  
 RAISE 
  
 LOG 
  
 'Failed to check index %: %' 
 , 
  
 r 
 . 
 relname 
 , 
  
 sqlerrm 
 ; 
  
 RAISE 
  
 WARNING 
  
 'Failed to check index %: %' 
 , 
  
 r 
 . 
 relname 
 , 
  
 sqlerrm 
 ; 
  
 END 
 ; 
  
 END 
  
 LOOP 
 ; 
  
 RAISE 
  
 NOTICE 
  
 'Finished b-tree amcheck on database: %' 
 , 
  
 current_database 
 (); 
 END 
  
 $$ 
 ; 

You should receive output similar to the following:

Code Sample

  
WARNING:  
Failed  
to  
check  
index  
t_i_key:  
relhasindex  
is  
false,  
want  
 true 
  
NOTICE:  
Checking  
index  
t_pkey:  
NOTICE:  
Checking  
index  
t_i_key:  
WARNING:  
Failed  
to  
check  
index  
t_i_key:  
item  
order  
invariant  
violated  
 for 
  
index  
 "t_i_key" 
  
NOTICE:  
Checking  
index  
t_j_key:  
WARNING:  
Failed  
to  
check  
index  
t_j_key:  
item  
order  
invariant  
violated  
 for 
  
index  
 "t_j_key" 
  
NOTICE:  
Checking  
index  
ij:  
WARNING:  
Failed  
to  
check  
index  
ij:  
item  
order  
invariant  
violated  
 for 
  
index  
 "ij" 

For more information about viewing logs, see View logs by using the Logs Explorer .

Identify and fix unique and primary key violations

This section describes how to check your index for unique and primary key violations, and if some exist, how you fix them.

Identify unique key violations

Unique key violations must be fixed before you reindex an index. To check for all unique key violations, run the following command in each database:

Code Sample

 WITH 
  
 q 
  
 AS 
  
 ( 
  
 /* this gets info for all UNIQUE indexes */ 
  
 SELECT 
  
 indexrelid 
 :: 
 regclass 
  
 as 
  
 idxname 
 , 
  
 indrelid 
 :: 
 regclass 
  
 as 
  
 tblname 
 , 
  
 indcollation 
 , 
  
 pg_get_indexdef 
 ( 
 indexrelid 
 ), 
  
 format 
 ( 
 '(%s)' 
 ,( 
 select 
  
 string_agg 
 ( 
 quote_ident 
 ( 
 attname 
 ), 
  
 ', ' 
 ) 
  
 from 
  
 pg_attribute 
  
 a 
  
 join 
  
 unnest 
 ( 
 indkey 
 ) 
  
 ia 
 ( 
 nr 
 ) 
  
 on 
  
 ia 
 . 
 nr 
  
 = 
  
 a 
 . 
 attnum 
  
 where 
  
 attrelid 
  
 = 
  
 indrelid 
 )) 
  
 as 
  
 idxfields 
 , 
  
 COALESCE 
 ( 
 substring 
 ( 
 pg_get_indexdef 
 ( 
 indexrelid 
 ) 
  
 FROM 
  
 '[)] (WHERE .*)$' 
 ), 
  
 '' 
 ) 
  
 as 
  
 whereclause 
  
 FROM 
  
 pg_index 
  
 WHERE 
  
 indisunique 
  
 /* next line excludes indexes not affected by collation changes */ 
  
 AND 
  
 trim 
 ( 
 replace 
 ( 
 indcollation 
 :: 
 text 
 , 
  
 '0' 
 , 
  
 '' 
 )) 
  
 != 
  
 '' 
 ) 
 SELECT 
  
 /* the format constructs the query to execute for each index */ 
  
 format 
 ( 
 $ 
 sql 
 $ 
 DO 
  
 $$ 
  
 BEGIN 
  
 RAISE 
  
 NOTICE 
  
 'checking index %3$I%2$I on table %1$I %4$I' 
 ; 
  
 END 
 ; 
 $$ 
 ; 
 SELECT 
  
 this 
 , 
  
 prev 
 , 
  
 /* we detect both reversed ordering or just not unique */ 
  
 ( 
 CASE 
  
 WHEN 
  
 this 
  
 = 
  
 prev 
  
 THEN 
  
 'DUPLICATE' 
  
 ELSE 
  
 'BACKWARDS' 
  
 END 
 ) 
  
 as 
  
 violation_type 
  
 FROM 
  
 ( 
 SELECT 
  
 % 
 2 
 $ 
 s 
  
 AS 
  
 this 
 , 
  
 lag 
 ( 
 % 
 2 
 $ 
 s 
 ) 
  
 OVER 
  
 ( 
 ORDER 
  
 BY 
  
 % 
 2 
 $ 
 s 
 ) 
  
 AS 
  
 prev 
  
 FROM 
  
 % 
 1 
 $ 
 s 
  
 % 
 4 
 $ 
 s 
  
 ) 
  
 s 
  
 WHERE 
  
 this 
  
 <= 
  
 prev 
  
 and 
  
 this 
  
 IS 
  
 NOT 
  
 NULL 
  
 and 
  
 prev 
  
 IS 
  
 NOT 
  
 NULL 
 ; 
  
 /* change to just '<' if looking for reverse order in index */ 
 $ 
 sql 
 $ 
 , 
  
 tblname 
 , 
  
 idxfields 
 , 
  
 idxname 
 , 
  
 whereclause 
 ) 
  
 FROM 
  
 q 
 -- LIMIT 20 /* may use limit for testing */ 
 -- the next line tells psql to executes this query and then execute each returned line separately 
 \ 
 gexec 

The output of the script is similar to the following:

Output

  
NOTICE:  
checking  
 index 
 = 
users_email_key  
on  
 table 
 = 
users  
 key_columns 
 = 
 "(email)" 
  
NOTICE:  
checking  
 index 
 = 
games_title_key  
on  
 table 
 = 
games  
 key_columns 
 = 
 "(title)" 
  
this  
 | 
  
prev  
 | 
  
violation_type  
--------------------+--------------------+----------------  
Game  
 #16 $soccer 2  | Game #16 $soccer 2 | DUPLICATE 
  
Game  
 #18 $soccer 2  | Game #18 $soccer 2 | DUPLICATE 
  
Game  
 #2 $soccer 2   | Game #2 $soccer 2  | DUPLICATE 
  
Game  
 #5 $soccer 2   | Game #5 $soccer 2  | DUPLICATE 

In this output, the table header NOTICE shows the index, column, and table for the values displayed below it. If your output contains rows displaying DUPLICATE or BACKWARDS , then this shows corruption in the index and may need to be fixed. Rows with BACKWARDS indicate possible duplicate values that might be hidden. If you see either of these entries in the table, see Fix duplicate key violations .

Fix duplicate key violations

If you have identified a duplicate unique index or if a reindex operation fails due to a duplicate key violation error, complete the following steps to find and remove the duplicate key(s).

  1. Extract the key_columns from the NOTICE table header, as shown in the preceding sample output. In the following example, the key column is email .

    Output

      
     NOTICE 
     : 
      
     checking 
      
     index 
     = 
     users_email_key 
      
     on 
      
     table 
     = 
     users 
      
     key_columns 
     = 
     "(email)" 
    

    Use these values in KEY_COLUMNS in the query in step 3.

  2. Find the schema for your table. Use psql to connect to your database and run the following command:

    Code Sample

     \ 
     dt 
      
      TABLE_NAME 
     
    
    The value in the schema column is the value you use for SCHEMA_NAME in the query in step 3.

    For example, for the following query:

      
     \ 
     dt 
      
      games 
     
      
    

    The output is similar to the following:

      
     List 
      
     of 
      
     relations 
      
     Schema 
      
     | 
      
     Name 
      
     | 
      
     Type 
      
     | 
      
     Owner 
      
     --------+-------+-------+---------- 
      
     public 
      
     | 
      
     games 
      
     | 
      
     table 
      
     | 
      
     postgres 
      
     ( 
     1 
      
     row 
     ) 
      
    
  3. Run the following statements to force a full table scan and get duplicate keys.

    Code Sample

     SET 
      
     enable_indexscan 
      
     = 
      
     off 
     ; 
     SET 
      
     enable_bitmapscan 
      
     = 
      
     off 
     ; 
     SET 
      
     enable_indexonlyscan 
      
     = 
      
     off 
     ; 
     SELECT 
      
      KEY_COLUMNS 
     
     , 
      
     count 
     ( 
     * 
     ) 
      
     FROM 
      
      SCHEMA_NAME 
     
     . 
      TABLE_NAME 
     
     GROUP 
      
     BY 
      
      KEY_COLUMNS 
     
     HAVING 
      
     count 
     ( 
     * 
     ) 
      
     > 
      
     1 
     ; 
    

    In the above statement, KEY_COLUMNS are one or more columns covered by the unique index or primary key in the table you are checking. These were identified when you checked for unique key violations. The statement returns the duplicate keys and a count of the duplicates for each.

    For example, for the following query:

      
     SELECT 
      
     name 
     , 
     count 
     (*) 
      
     FROM 
      
     public 
     . 
     TEST_NAMES 
      
     GROUP 
      
     BY 
      
     name 
      
     HAVING 
      
     count 
     (*) 
     > 
     1 
     ; 
      
    

    The output is similar to the following:

      
     name 
      
     | 
      
     count 
      
     --------------------+------- 
      
     Johnny 
      
     | 
      
     2 
      
     Peter 
      
     | 
      
     2 
     ( 
     2 
      
     rows 
     ) 
    

    In this case, continue to the next step to remove the duplicate keys.

    If any of the columns in KEY_COLUMNS are null, you can ignore them because unique constraints do not apply for NULL columns.

    If no duplicate keys are found, you can move to Fix inconsistent indexes .

  4. Optional but recommended: Create a backup for the records containing duplicate keys. Run the following statement to create backup records:

    Code Sample

     CREATE 
      
     TABLE 
      
      SCHEMA_NAME 
     
     . 
      TABLE_NAME 
     
    _bak AS 
      
     SELECT 
      
     * 
      
     FROM 
      
      SCHEMA_NAME 
     
     . 
      TABLE_NAME 
     
     WHERE 
      
     ( 
      KEY_COLUMNS 
     
     ) 
     IN 
      
     ( 
      KEY_VALUES 
     
     ); 
    
    In this statement, KEY_VALUES is a list of values copied from the result of the previous step. For example:

    Code Sample

      
     CREATE 
      
     TABLE 
      
     public 
     . 
     TEST_NAMES_bak 
      
     AS 
      
     SELECT 
      
     * 
      
     FROM 
      
     public 
     . 
     TEST_NAMES 
      
     WHERE 
      
     ( 
     name 
     ) 
      
     IN 
      
     (( 
     'Johnny' 
     ),( 
     'Peter' 
     )) 
      
    

    For a large number of rows, it is easier to replace the (( KEY_VALUES )) parameter in the IN statement with the SELECT statement from step 2 without the count parameter. For example:

    Code Sample

      
     CREATE 
      
     TABLE 
      
      SCHEMA_NAME 
     
     . 
      TABLE_NAME 
     
    _bak  
     AS 
      
     SELECT 
      
     * 
      
     FROM 
      
      SCHEMA_NAME 
     
     . 
      TABLE_NAME 
     
      
     WHERE 
      
     ( 
      KEY_COLUMNS 
     
     ) 
      
     IN 
      
     ( 
      
     SELECT 
      
     ( 
      KEY_COLUMNS 
     
     ) 
      
     FROM 
      
      SCHEMA_NAME 
     
     . 
      TABLE_NAME 
     
      
     GROUP 
      
     BY 
      
     ( 
      KEY_COLUMNS 
     
     ) 
      
     HAVING 
      
     count 
     ( 
     * 
     ) 
      
     > 
      
     1 
     ); 
    
  5. Add a replication role to the user to disable triggers:

    Code Sample

     ALTER 
      
     USER 
      
      CURRENT_USER 
     
      
     with 
      
     REPLICATION 
     ; 
     SET 
      
     session_replication_role 
      
     = 
      
     replica 
     ; 
    
  6. Run the following statement to delete the duplicate keys:

    Code Sample

     BEGIN 
     ; 
     DELETE 
      
     FROM 
      
      SCHEMA_NAME 
     
     . 
      TABLE_NAME 
     
      
     a 
      
     USING 
      
     ( 
      
     SELECT 
      
     min 
     ( 
     ctid 
     ) 
      
     AS 
      
     ctid 
     , 
      
      KEY_COLUMNS 
     
      
     FROM 
      
      SCHEMA_NAME 
     
     . 
      TABLE_NAME 
     
      
     GROUP 
      
     BY 
      
      KEY_COLUMNS 
     
      
     HAVING 
      
     count 
     ( 
     * 
     ) 
      
     > 
      
     1 
      
     ) 
      
     b 
      
     WHERE 
      
     a 
     . 
      KEY_COLUMNS 
     
      
     = 
      
     b 
     . 
      KEY_COLUMNS 
     
      
     AND 
      
     a 
     . 
     ctid 
      
     <> 
      
     b 
     . 
     ctid 
     ; 
      
    

    For example, for multi-column KEY_COLUMNS :

    Code Sample

      
     DELETE 
      
     FROM 
      
     public 
     . 
     test_random 
      
     a 
      
     USING 
      
     ( 
      
     SELECT 
      
     min 
     ( 
     ctid 
     ) 
      
     AS 
      
     ctid 
     , 
      
     day 
     , 
      
     rnum 
      
     FROM 
      
     public 
     . 
     test_random 
      
     GROUP 
      
     BY 
      
     day 
     , 
      
     rnum 
      
     HAVING 
      
     count 
     ( 
     * 
     ) 
     > 
     1 
      
     ) 
      
     b 
      
     WHERE 
      
     a 
     . 
     day 
     = 
     b 
     . 
     day 
      
     and 
      
     a 
     . 
     rnum 
      
     = 
      
     b 
     . 
     rnum 
      
     AND 
      
     a 
     . 
     ctid 
     <> 
     b 
     . 
     ctid 
     ; 
    
    Where day and rnum are KEY_COLUMNS .

    Running this statement keeps one row and deletes others for each set of duplicate rows. If you want to control which version of the row gets deleted, run the following filter in the delete statement:

    Code Sample

     DELETE 
      
     FROM 
      SCHEMA_NAME 
     
     . 
      TABLE_NAME 
     
     WHERE 
      
     ( 
      
      KEY_COLUMNS 
     
     , 
      
     ctid 
     ) 
      
     = 
      
     ( 
      KEY_VALUES 
     
     , 
      
      CTID_VALUE 
     
     ); 
    
  7. Complete the following steps to check that the DELETE command returned the expected number of rows without any errors:

    1. Run the following statement to identify the rows in which tables were changed:

      Code Sample

       SELECT 
        
       schemaname 
       , 
        
       relname 
       , 
        
       n_tup_del 
       , 
        
       n_tup_upd 
        
       FROM 
        
       pg_stat_xact_all_tables 
       WHERE 
        
       n_tup_del 
       + 
       n_tup_upd 
        
       > 
        
       0 
       ; 
      
    2. If all the rows are correct, commit the DELETE transaction:

      Code Sample

       END 
       ; 
      
    3. If there are errors, roll back the changes to fix the errors:

      Code Sample

       ROLLBACK 
       ; 
      
  8. After the duplicate keys are deleted, you can reindex your index.

Fix inconsistent indexes

The following sections describe how you can fix the index inconsistencies found in your instance.

Depending on how your database is configured, you may need to do the following for each index identified in the previous steps:

  1. Prepare to reindex your index .

  2. Reindex your index .

  3. If the reindex operation fails due to foreign key violations, you must find and fix these violations .

  4. Run the reindex operation again.

Prepare to reindex your index

Find the index size

Indexing larger databases requires more time than smaller databases. To improve the speed of index and reindex operations of larger databases, you can allocate more memory and CPU power to these operations. This is an important step in planning your reindex operation. After you know the index size, you can set the memory size used by the reindex operation and set the number of parallel workers .

Run the following statement to find the index size, in kilobytes, of the index that you want to fix:

Code Sample

 SELECT 
  
 i 
 . 
 relname 
  
 AS 
  
 index_name 
 , 
  
 pg_size_pretty 
 ( 
 pg_relation_size 
 ( 
 x 
 . 
 indexrelid 
 )) 
  
 AS 
  
 index_size 
 FROM 
  
 pg_index 
  
 x 
  
 JOIN 
  
 pg_class 
  
 i 
  
 ON 
  
 i 
 . 
 oid 
  
 = 
  
 x 
 . 
 indexrelid 
 WHERE 
  
 i 
 . 
 relname 
  
 = 
  
 ' INDEX_NAME 
' 
 ; 

The output of this statement is similar to the following:

Output

  
index_name  
 | 
  
index_size
------------+------------  
my_index  
 | 
  
 16 
  
kB ( 
 1 
  
row ) 

Set memory size to use for reindexing

Based on the size of your index as determined in the previous section, it is important to set the appropriate value for the maintenance_work_mem configuration parameter. This parameter specifies the amount of memory to use for the reindexing operation. For example, if your index size is greater than 15 GB, we recommend that you adjust your maintenance memory.

The following example shows how to set maintenance_work_mem :

Code Sample

 SET 
  
 maintenance_work_mem 
  
 TO 
  
 "1GB" 
 ; 

Indexing larger databases requires more time than smaller databases. To improve the speed of index and reindex operations, we recommend setting maintenance_work_mem to at least 2% of the instance memory for instances with 4GB or more memory during this reindexing operation.

Set the number of parallel workers

You can increase the number of parallel workers for reindexing by setting the max_parallel_maintenance_workers configuration parameter in the database. The default value of this parameter is 2 but can be set to a higher value to increase the number of workers for reindexing. For instances with 8 or more vCPU cores, we recommend setting the max_parallel_maintenance_workers flag value to 4.

The following shows how to identify the values set for these parameters:

Code Sample

 SHOW 
  
 max_parallel_maintenance_workers 
 ; 
 SHOW 
  
 max_worker_processes 
 ; 
 SHOW 
  
 max_parallel_workers 
 ; 

The max_parallel_maintenance_workers parameter is a subset of max_worker_processes and limited by max_parallel_workers . If you require more parallel workers, increase the value of max_worker_processes and max_parallel_workers .

The following example shows how to set max_parallel_maintenance_workers :

Code Sample

 SET 
  
 max_parallel_maintenance_workers 
  
 TO 
  
 4 
 ; 

The max_parallel_maintenance_workers parameter does not guarantee the allocation of workers. To confirm that you have multiple parallel workers started by the reindexing, run the following query from another session after you have started the reindex:

Code Sample

 SELECT 
 leader 
 . 
 leader_pid 
 , 
 leader 
 . 
 pid 
  
 "worker_pid" 
 , 
 leader 
 . 
 query 
 FROM 
 pg_stat_activity 
  
 leader 
 , 
  
 pg_stat_activity 
  
 worker 
 WHERE 
  
 leader 
 . 
 leader_pid 
  
 = 
  
 worker 
 . 
 pid 
 ; 

Reindex your index

You can reindex an index without blocking your production workload using the pg_repack utility. This utility automates and simplifies the concurrent reindex process, enabling you to reindex without downtime. For this procedure, use pg_repack version 1.4.7.

Complete the following steps to reindex your index using pg_repack :

  1. Download, compile, and install the pg_repack utility from the pg_repack page .

  2. Create the pg_repack extension:

    Code Sample

    CREATE  
    EXTENSION  
    pg_repack ; 
    
  3. Run the following command to reindex your index concurrently:

    Code Sample

      
    pg_repack  
    -h  
     HOSTIP 
      
    -p  
     5432 
      
    -U  
     USERNAME 
      
    -d  
     " DATABASE_NAME 
    " 
      
    -i  
     " INDEX_NAME 
    " 
      
    --no-superuser-check  
    --no-kill-backend  
    --wait-timeout = 
     3600 
    

    This command has output similar to the following:

    Output

    INFO:  
    repacking  
    index  
     "public.t_i_key" 
    

    If any errors occurred when running pg_repack , you can correct the error and try again. After you have fixed all of your unique key indexes and primary key indexes, you should check for foreign key violations and fix any that are found.

Find and fix foreign key violations

For information about how to find and fix foreign key violations, see Find and fix foreign key violations .

Monitor reindexing operations

Occasionally, the reindex operation may be blocked by other sessions. We recommended that you check this every 4 hours. If the reindex operation is blocked, you can cancel the blocking session so the reindex operation can complete.

Complete the following steps to identify blocking and waiting sessions and then cancel them in the INDEX operation:

  1. To identify blocking sessions, run the following query:

    Code Sample

     SELECT 
      
     pid 
     , 
      
     usename 
     , 
      
     pg_blocking_pids 
     ( 
     pid 
     ) 
      
     AS 
      
     blocked_by 
     , 
      
     query 
      
     AS 
      
     blocked_query 
     FROM 
      
     pg_stat_activity 
     WHERE 
      
     cardinality 
     ( 
     pg_blocking_pids 
     ( 
     pid 
     )) 
      
     > 
      
     0 
     ; 
    
  2. To cancel a session, run the following query using the PID of the blocking session from the previous query:

    Code Sample

     SELECT 
      
     pg_cancel_backend 
     ( 
      PID 
     
     ); 
    

Verify that your indexes are consistent

You must continue to check for index inconsistencies for each inconsistent index. After you have fixed all your instance's inconsistent indexes and key violations, you can check that no issues exist by following the steps in the previous sections:

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