https://www.postgresscripts.com/tags/archiving/Recent content in Archiving on Postgres ScriptsHugo -- gohugo.ioenPostgresScripts.comSat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://www.postgresscripts.com/post/monitor-postgresql-wal-archiver-status-with-pg-stat-archiver/Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://www.postgresscripts.com/post/monitor-postgresql-wal-archiver-status-with-pg-stat-archiver/ <h2 id="monitor-postgresql-wal-archiver-status-with-pg_stat_archiver">Monitor PostgreSQL WAL Archiver Status with pg_stat_archiver</h2> <p><code>pg_stat_archiver</code> is the canonical place to check whether PostgreSQL's continuous archiving is keeping up — a single-row view that exposes <code>last_archived_wal</code>, <code>last_failed_wal</code>, and the rolling failure count without parsing log files. On a healthy cluster the row is uninteresting; on a stalled cluster it is the difference between catching a problem in minutes and finding a full WAL volume on Saturday night.</p> <script async src="https://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1012089347386563" crossorigin="anonymous"></script> <ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-1012089347386563" data-ad-slot="7945792173" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins> <script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script> <h2 id="purpose-and-overview">Purpose and Overview</h2> <p>A PostgreSQL cluster configured for continuous archiving runs the <code>archive_command</code> (or <code>archive_library</code> on PostgreSQL 15+) once per finalized WAL segment. The command's job is to copy the segment somewhere durable — typically S3, NFS, or a backup server — so the WAL stream can later feed point-in-time recovery (PITR) or warm-standby replay. When the archive command fails (target unreachable, disk full, permission revoked, network partition), PostgreSQL retries continuously, <code>pg_wal</code> accumulates segments, and the cluster eventually fills its WAL volume. At that point writes stop until space is freed.</p>