PostgreSQL duplicate key violates unique constraint error

Question

CentOS 6.2 64bit Server PostgreSQL 8.4.9 installed via yum

I am seeing errors from time to time in PostgreSQL's logs about a table called events. The events table is used to stores information generated by triggers in Zabbix everytime a specific event occurs on a server that is being monitored.

Zabbix is the only application using the database server.

Here is the error:

INSTRUCTION :  insert into events (eventid,source,object,objectid,clock,ns,value,value_changed) values (6393428,2,3,38,1353354000,0,1,0)
ERROR:  duplicate key violates unique constraint « events_pkey »

There is no sequence associated with the table events

Here is the table structure for events

                               Table « public.events »
    Colonne    |  Type   |          Modificateurs           | Stockage | Description 
---------------+---------+----------------------------------+----------+-------------
 eventid       | bigint  | non NULL                         | plain    | 
 source        | integer | non NULL Par défaut, 0           | plain    | 
 object        | integer | non NULL Par défaut, 0           | plain    | 
 objectid      | bigint  | non NULL Par défaut, (0)::bigint | plain    | 
 clock         | integer | non NULL Par défaut, 0           | plain    | 
 value         | integer | non NULL Par défaut, 0           | plain    | 
 acknowledged  | integer | non NULL Par défaut, 0           | plain    | 
 ns            | integer | non NULL Par défaut, 0           | plain    | 
 value_changed | integer | non NULL Par défaut, 0           | plain    | 
Index :
    "events_pkey" PRIMARY KEY, btree (eventid)
    "events_1" btree (object, objectid, eventid)
    "events_2" btree (clock)
Référencé par :
    TABLE "acknowledges" CONSTRAINT "c_acknowledges_2" FOREIGN KEY (eventid) REFERENCES events(eventid) ON DELETE CASCADE
    TABLE "alerts" CONSTRAINT "c_alerts_2" FOREIGN KEY (eventid) REFERENCES events(eventid) ON DELETE CASCADE

Question

What steps can I take to resolve this error?

Thank you

Updated 11/26

I tried to run the ALTER TABLE ALTER COLUMN statement that dezso sent me, but I get an error about the bigserial type.

zabbix=# ALTER TABLE events ALTER COLUMN eventid TYPE bigserial;
ERREUR:  le type « bigserial » n'existe pas

I can however create a new table with that data type

zabbix=# \connect postgres
psql (8.4.13)
Vous êtes maintenant connecté à la base de données « postgres ».
postgres=# CREATE TABLE test(x bigserial);
NOTICE:  CREATE TABLE créera des séquences implicites « test_x_seq » pour la colonne serial « test.x »
CREATE TABLE
postgres=# \ds
              Liste des relations
 Schéma |    Nom     |   Type   | Propriétaire 
--------+------------+----------+--------------
 public | test_x_seq | séquence | postgres
(1 ligne)

How should I go about changing eventid to bigserial?

Update 11/27

I have tried another method to add the sequence to the column eventid

create sequence eventid_seq;
alter table events alter column eventid set default nextval('eventid_seq');
select (max(eventid) +1) as nexteventid from events;
SELECT setval('eventid_seq', 6645754);

That worked, but when I turned Zabbix back on, the eventid value continued to increase but the sequence didn't. What am I doing incorrectly?

Answer 1

(I try to compile an answer from the comments.)

It looks like there is a problem in the process with which your application generates the value for the primary key. Generally it is wiser to leave this to the DBMS: define a sequence and leave it fill the PK values. If you have a sequence, you have at least to options: either set the value like

$eventid = exec(SELECT nextval('your_sequence')) // pseudocode!

and use this in the INSERT statement, or completely leave it to PostgreSQL by omitting PK from the INSERT:

INSERT INTO events (source, object, [...]) 
VALUES (2, 3, [...]);  

(Personally I usually opt for the second solution.)

You can change to this behaviour by setting the data type of your PK column to bigserial (in case of an integer, it would be just serial):

ALTER TABLE events ALTER COLUMN eventid TYPE bigserial;

This will raise a notice which tells you that a sequence called (probably) events_eventid_seq is generated. You can use it as described above.

EDIT (2012-11-27)

You can set the sequence by a query like

SELECT setval('events_eventid_seq', (SELECT max(eventid) FROM events));

In order to let the sequence produce the next value for eventid, you must not set a value explicitly in your INSERT. If you do, it will take the manually supplied value and won't advance the sequence. This will cause the same unique violation error later.

Regarding ALTER TABLE: as you could see, there is some discrepancy between ALTER TABLE - type does not exists and CREATE TABLE. Are you sure you try this on the same database? I can't remember the older versions, but already 8.3 had the bigserial shorthand (it's not a real type). (Giving it further thought, it is quite possible you can't use it in ALTER TABLE, since it is a shorthand...) You can solve the problem by following the manual:

CREATE SEQUENCE events_eventid_seq;

ALTER TABLE events 
ALTER COLUMN eventid TYPE bigint;

ALTER SEQUENCE events_eventid_seq OWNED BY events.eventid;

SELECT setval('events_eventid_seq', (SELECT max(eventid) FROM events));