Postgres Replication: Incomplete Startup Packet

Question

I recently configured PostgreSQL 9.3 hot standby replication between a single master/slave.

I've checked my standby server again today and it looks like it is unable to complete and exit recovery mode on restart:

2014-03-25 22:36:07 UTC LOG:  entering standby mode
2014-03-25 22:36:07 UTC LOG:  incomplete startup packet
2014-03-25 22:36:07 UTC LOG:  redo starts at 7/E1091840
2014-03-25 22:36:07 UTC LOG:  consistent recovery state reached at 7/E10929C8
2014-03-25 22:36:07 UTC LOG:  record with zero length at 7/E10929C8
2014-03-25 22:36:07 UTC LOG:  started streaming WAL from primary at 7/E1000000 on timeline 1
2014-03-25 22:36:08 UTC FATAL:  the database system is starting up
2014-03-25 22:36:08 UTC FATAL:  the database system is starting up
2014-03-25 22:36:09 UTC FATAL:  the database system is starting up
... more ...
2014-03-25 22:36:13 UTC LOG:  incomplete startup packet

I've tried manually copying over WAL records from the master to the slave and I get the same errors, so I wonder if the WAL records on the master are the problem?

Answer 1

i solved the same problem re doing

 psql -c "select pg_start_backup('initial_backup');"
 rsync -cva --inplace --exclude=*pg_xlog* /var/lib/postgresql/9.1/main/ slave_IP_address:/var/lib/postgresql/9.1/main/
 psql -c "select pg_stop_backup();"

here is a good tutorial !!