This is a collection of tips when memory is short :-).

PostgreSQL Corruption “could not read block”

If you get errors like this:

could not read block 178 in file "base/119505/119778"
could not read block 21 in file "base/119505/119639"

This means the machine was not stopped properly or a filesystem problem. Once the disks and filesystems have been checked you should be able to locate and possibly repair the damage.

To find what is broken use oid2name with the last number in the error message:

# su - postgres
$ oid2name -d mailman -f 119778
From database "mailman":
  Filenode    Table Name
------------------------
    119778  address_pkey
$ oid2name -d mailman -f 119639
From database "mailman":
  Filenode  Table Name
----------------------
    119639   user_pkey

In this example these are indexes and they can be fixed easily with:

reindex index address_pkey;
reindex index user_pkey;

VM Not Booting

The VM console is accessible using virsh console <vm_name> but if the boot does not go that far then libguestfs comes to the rescue: the virt-rescue tool (libguestfs-rescue package on Red Hat systems) allows to access the VM’s OS as if using a rescue media. Common tools to check the filesystem are available.