Thread: PostgreSQL 12 - ERROR: invalid attribute number 2 for ad_user_pkey - Urgent

On Sep 1, 2021, at 8:08 AM, FOUTE K. Jaurès <jauresfoute@gmail.com> wrote:

Hello,

I have a strange issue in a production database on a customer and need to help to know how to solve the problem.

Any select on the table other than pg_catalog table throws the error  FATAL: catalog is missing 1 attribute(s) for 

Any idea how to solve this issue is really appreciated????

Any chance there’s a version mis-match between client and server?

On Wed, Sep 1, 2021 at 8:08 AM FOUTE K. Jaurès <jauresfoute@gmail.com> wrote:

Any idea how to solve this issue is really appreciated????

Have you restarted the server?

In pg_attribute for one of the problematic tables are all of the columns present that should be (i.e., is this a catalog contents error or, say, a relation cache or lookup failure)?

The client application shouldn't have anything to do with these errors - the server is doing all of the work.

David J.

On 9/1/21 8:08 AM, FOUTE K. Jaurès wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I have a strange issue in a production database on a customer and need
> to help to know how to solve the problem.
>
> Any select on the table other than pg_catalog table throws the error 
> FATAL: catalog is missing 1 attribute(s) for

To be clear this only happens when you select a particular user table?

Also the error message should have end 'for relid <id>', can you provide
that information.

>
> Any idea how to solve this issue is really appreciated????
>
>
> --
> Jaurès FOUTE


--
Adrian Klaver
adrian.klaver@aklaver.com

FOUTE K. Jaurès <jauresfoute@gmail.com> writes:
> For all table except the pg_catalo table.
> The dump on the database is not possible too. (pg_dump: error: invalid
> column numbering in table "xxxxxx")

It seems that pg_attribute is messed up.  If you are really lucky,
it might be only a problem in pg_attribute's indexes, in which case
reindexing pg_attribute would fix it.  However, I recommend proceeding
on the assumption that you have possibly-irrecoverable damage.  Before
you do ANYTHING, make a complete filesystem-level backup of the cluster
(stop the server, then do "tar cf backup.tar $PGDATA" or equivalent).

Even if reindexing pg_attribute seems to fix it, I'd counsel then doing
a pg_dump and restore, in hopes of curing any other problems that may
have stemmed from the same root cause.

Speaking of root cause, have you had any crashes lately?  Is your
Postgres up-to-date?  How about the underlying OS?

                        regards, tom lane

Hello Tom,

Thank You for your Answer. It solves the problem.

Thank you very much for your support.

Le mer. 1 sept. 2021 à 16:46, Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> a écrit :

FOUTE K. Jaurès <jauresfoute@gmail.com> writes:
> For all table except the pg_catalo table.
> The dump on the database is not possible too. (pg_dump: error: invalid
> column numbering in table "xxxxxx")

It seems that pg_attribute is messed up.  If you are really lucky,
it might be only a problem in pg_attribute's indexes, in which case
reindexing pg_attribute would fix it.  However, I recommend proceeding
on the assumption that you have possibly-irrecoverable damage.  Before
you do ANYTHING, make a complete filesystem-level backup of the cluster
(stop the server, then do "tar cf backup.tar $PGDATA" or equivalent).

Even if reindexing pg_attribute seems to fix it, I'd counsel then doing
a pg_dump and restore, in hopes of curing any other problems that may
have stemmed from the same root cause.

Speaking of root cause, have you had any crashes lately?  Is your
Postgres up-to-date?  How about the underlying OS?

                        regards, tom lane

--

Jaurès FOUTE