Why do I get an error "Status: Error, operator notified" when creating a follower database in heroku postgres?

Issue

The customer is getting an error while trying to create a follower DB via CLI where the follower DB gets stuck at the point - "Behind by: xxxx commits".

Resolution

1. Check to see if you've followed the instructions as mentioned here for creating a follower database: https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/heroku-postgres-follower-databases#create-a-follower

2. Basically, if you run heroku pg:ps, you can see many long running queries (e.g. more than 8 hours). Long running queries on the follower database can cause it's being behind. It is recommended to kill those queries. Reference article here.

3. You can kill all queries with heroku pg:killall, or you could use heroku pg:kill <pid from pg:ps command>. If the query isn't killed with normal pg:kill command, you want to try adding -f option there.

Reference: https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/heroku-postgres-performance-analytics#checks-long-running-queries-long-transactions-idle-in-transaction

Still having issues? Reach out to Heroku support.