Recovering db from cracked server

Don Doumakes wrote:

I own a server that was recently cracked by, I presume, an incompetent
script kiddie. Minutes after he bravely tagged the web site, the
server went down hard and would not boot. I've built a new system.

I need to recover a postgresql 7.2 database from the old hard drive,
which is still readable. The postgresql data directory is intact. The
latest version of postgresql is incompatible with 7.2.x, so I compiled
postgresql-7.2.7 and attempted to run

postgres -D copy_of_old_data_dir

The error response (on stdout) is

DEBUG: database system was shut down at 2005-02-20 21:54:33 CST
DEBUG: checkpoint record is at 0/5CCA0AC
DEBUG: redo record is at 0/5CCA0AC; undo record is at 0/0; shutdown
TRUE
DEBUG: next transaction id: 73360; next oid: 59092
DEBUG: database system is ready
FATAL 1: Database "postgres" does not exist in the system catalog.
DEBUG: shutting down
DEBUG: database system is shut down

Am I close? or is this approach doomed? Suggestions gratefully
accepted.

You're close - the only thing it was complaining about was the missing
"postgres" database. That's because it defaults to using the same
database as the username. Try
postgres -D copy_of_old_data_dir template1

Or use the name of your old database.

--
Richard Huxton
Archonet Ltd

"Don Doumakes" <spamtrap@pinko.net> writes:

latest version of postgresql is incompatible with 7.2.x, so I compiled
postgresql-7.2.7 and attempted to run

postgres -D copy_of_old_data_dir

You probably wanted to say "postmaster" not "postgres". The quoted
result is about what I'd expect from trying to run a standalone backend
with the wrong arguments ;-)

regards, tom lane

Richard Huxton wrote:

You're close - the only thing it was complaining about was the

missing

"postgres" database. That's because it defaults to using the same
database as the username. Try
postgres -D copy_of_old_data_dir template1

Or use the name of your old database.

Woohoo! Thanks a million; I've got my data back.

Don Doumakes
Email: doumakes at loganet.net
Do not reply to spamtrap@pinko.net