PostgreSQL

Transaction ID wraparound shutdown risk

critical
availabilityUpdated Feb 14, 2026
Technologies:
How to detect:

When PostgreSQL approaches the transaction ID wraparound limit, it issues warnings. If the limit is reached, PostgreSQL shuts down to prevent data corruption. Indicates autovacuum is severely behind.

Recommended action:

Run aggressive manual vacuum immediately: vacuumdb --analyze --verbose --jobs=4 mydb. Reduce autovacuum_vacuum_scale_factor from 0.2 to 0.01. Increase autovacuum_max_workers from 3 to 5 or 6. Monitor oldest xmin age.