Re: [GENERAL] Postgres no longer starts
came across this problem myself. turned out after much playing around that it was a change to the pg_hba.conf was a syntax error in the all all posgres trust sameuser line. deleted it and postgres fired up from /etc/init.d or as a service. just my very late twopenneth -- View this message in context: http://postgresql.1045698.n5.nabble.com/Postgres-no-longer-starts-tp5710560p5731011.html Sent from the PostgreSQL - general mailing list archive at Nabble.com. -- Sent via pgsql-general mailing list (pgsql-general@postgresql.org) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-general
Re: [GENERAL] Postgres no longer starts
Alan Hodgson ahodg...@simkin.ca writes: On Wednesday, May 30, 2012 08:22:58 PM Bart Lateur wrote: Luckily this is a development machine, but as we don't know what causes the problem we fear we might one day face the exact same problem where it does matter: on a production machine. So we'd like to know exactly what went wrong.. Change selinux to permissive instead of enforcing and see if PostgreSQL then runs. If it does, you can look at the selinux logging to see what would have been denied in enforcing mode, and hopefully fix it from there. Yeah, I concur that this smells like a selinux issue. Most likely, the software update you did messed up the selinux context settings for some files. restorecon should be able to fix it for you, if so. As Alan says, the kernel log (or separate avc log, depending on how your system is set up) should show evidence of the problem if this is where it is. I thought the same, and I was happy to go in and fix it, but then I found that SElinux was not even enabled. Hunting around for more logs I finally found a recently updated log file in the subdirectory /var/lib/pgsql/data/pg_log/. And there I found the message that pg_hba.conf could not be loaded due to a syntax error in it. Weird, it was running before...? It's suboptimal that starting Postgres fails silently. It's also less than optimal that the location of the log files is a bit of a secret. It's also suboptimal that Postgres refuses to run because it doesn't understand 1 line in pg_hba.conf. After all, it's just a data grid, not prose... Anyway, hint for Postgres newbies (or at least, people who don't spend whole days administering Postgres, which is about everybody, I guess): find the logs. They're in the subdirectory pg_log and they have names like postgresql-DDD.log where DDD is the three letter name of the day. The currently active log is one of them. Thanks a lot, all of you who replied. -- Bart Lateur. -- Sent via pgsql-general mailing list (pgsql-general@postgresql.org) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-general
Re: [GENERAL] Postgres no longer starts
On 05/31/2012 12:45 AM, Bart Lateur wrote: Alan Hodgsonahodg...@simkin.ca writes: On Wednesday, May 30, 2012 08:22:58 PM Bart Lateur wrote: Luckily this is a development machine, but as we don't know what causes the problem we fear we might one day face the exact same problem where it does matter: on a production machine. So we'd like to know exactly what went wrong.. Change selinux to permissive instead of enforcing and see if PostgreSQL then runs. If it does, you can look at the selinux logging to see what would have been denied in enforcing mode, and hopefully fix it from there. Yeah, I concur that this smells like a selinux issue. Most likely, the software update you did messed up the selinux context settings for some files. restorecon should be able to fix it for you, if so. As Alan says, the kernel log (or separate avc log, depending on how your system is set up) should show evidence of the problem if this is where it is. I thought the same, and I was happy to go in and fix it, but then I found that SElinux was not even enabled. Hunting around for more logs I finally found a recently updated log file in the subdirectory /var/lib/pgsql/data/pg_log/. And there I found the message that pg_hba.conf could not be loaded due to a syntax error in it. Weird, it was running before...? It's suboptimal that starting Postgres fails silently. It's also less than optimal that the location of the log files is a bit of a secret. It's also suboptimal that Postgres refuses to run because it doesn't understand 1 line in pg_hba.conf. After all, it's just a data grid, not prose... Actually it did not fail silently, it recorded it to the log. The location of the log file is no great secret, open postgresql.conf(the server confog file) and look for log_directory. pg_hba.conf is access control and the first line of defense in security. I would prefer that it fail closed instead of open. Anyway, hint for Postgres newbies (or at least, people who don't spend whole days administering Postgres, which is about everybody, I guess): find the logs. They're in the subdirectory pg_log and they have names like postgresql-DDD.log where DDD is the three letter name of the day. The currently active log is one of them. Not necessarily. It depends on how Postgres was packaged. See hint above about looking in postgresql.conf. Thanks a lot, all of you who replied. -- Adrian Klaver adrian.kla...@gmail.com -- Sent via pgsql-general mailing list (pgsql-general@postgresql.org) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-general
[GENERAL] Postgres no longer starts
CentOS 5.x (now 5.8), Postgres 8.4.something. Postgres had been up and running for over a year now. After an update on the system, and adding mod_ssl in Apache (is this related? No idea.), Postgres no longer starts up. It just fails silently. pgstartup.log contains only one single line: runuser: cannot set groups: Operation not permitted I have no idea where to begin to debug this; Google only produces a handful of results about this error message in relation to Postgres. None fix my problem. Whatever I do, everything just fails quietly. As far as I can see, the configuration files haven't changed. Help? Where do I even begin to debug this? Could a complete reinstall of Postgres and restoration of the databases help? -- Bart.
Re: [GENERAL] Postgres no longer starts
On Wed, May 30, 2012 at 8:55 PM, Bart Lateur b...@taxistop.be wrote: CentOS 5.x (now 5.8), Postgres 8.4.something. Postgres had been up and running for over a year now. ** ** After an update on the system, and adding mod_ssl in Apache (is this related? No idea.), Postgres no longer starts up. It just fails silently. “pgstartup.log” contains only one single line: ** ** runuser: cannot set groups: Operation not permitted ** ** ** ** I have no idea where to begin to debug this; Google only produces a handful of results about this error message in relation to Postgres. None fix my problem. ** ** Whatever I do, everything just fails quietly. As far as I can see, the configuration files haven’t changed. ** ** Help? Where do I even begin to debug this? Could a complete reinstall of Postgres and restoration of the databases help? ** ** -- Bart. ** ** ** ** Could you please, try to start the cluster using pg_ctl utility: Syntax: Installation Directory/bin/pg_ctl -D Data Directory start Ex:- /opt/PostgreSQL/8.4/bin/pg_ctl -D /opt/PostgreSQL/8.4/data start and then share the log file information -- Thanks Regards, Raghu Ram Skypeid: raghu.ramedb EnterpriseDB: http://www.enterprisedb.com
Re: [GENERAL] Postgres no longer starts
On 05/30/12 8:25 AM, Bart Lateur wrote: After an update on the system, and adding mod_ssl in Apache (is this related? No idea.), Postgres no longer starts up. It just fails silently. “pgstartup.log” contains only one single line: runuser: cannot set groups: Operation not permitted did you use yum to install everything? do you use any non-standard CentOS repositories ? CentOS 5 came with an older version of PG (8.1, I think?), so where did you get 8.4 from, and how did you install it originally? the PGDG packaged postgresql versions for CentOS/RHEL appear to use `runuser` instead of `su` if selinux is enabled ... so this is likely a selinux related issue. -- john r pierceN 37, W 122 santa cruz ca mid-left coast -- Sent via pgsql-general mailing list (pgsql-general@postgresql.org) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-general
Re: [GENERAL] Postgres no longer starts
(Sorry if message threading is a bit off; I'm replying from a different mail account as the previous post, so the ref header won't match.) Well I tried /usr/bin/pg_ctl -D /var/lib/pgsql/data start -l /tmp/pglogfile and it just says server starting and then... nothing. It seems to quit immediately. The logfile, /tmp/logfile exists, but is empty. (I noticed the previous logfile, pgstartup.log, was still the same and hadn't changed since a few hours earlier, so the modified timestamp confirmed, so it wasn't being updated any more.) As where I did get the installer of Postgres for CentOS: I don't quite remember the details, as it has been running well for several months. But I got the idea from one of the many blog posts about it, such as these: http://blog.lystor.org.ua/2010/05/upgrading-postgresql-81-to-84-centos-55.html http://www.if-not-true-then-false.com/2010/howto-install-postgresql-8-4-database-server-on-centos-fedora-red-hat/ I think it just comes from one of the unofficial CentOS repositories. Like I said, it has been running well for months and the latest upgrade was unrelated to PostGres. It may have been some manual tweak I did a few weeks ago... PostGres hadn't been restarted since then. If I knew what it was complaining about, I might be able to fix it. I have already made a backup of the /var/lib/pgsql/data subdirectory, I might just remove all of Postgres, and then reinstall. Luckily this is a development machine, but as we don't know what causes the problem we fear we might one day face the exact same problem where it does matter: on a production machine. So we'd like to know exactly what went wrong... -- Bart Lateur bart.lat...@telenet.be -- Sent via pgsql-general mailing list (pgsql-general@postgresql.org) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-general
Re: [GENERAL] Postgres no longer starts
Bart: Failing a more definitive diagnostic approach, I suggest that you post your entire pgstartup.log rather than just the error message. My guess is that the position in that log where the error occurs will give folks who are more familiar with the startup sequence a reasonable idea of where in the start process things failed and may at least help you to localize your search for problems. Good luck, John -- Sent via pgsql-general mailing list (pgsql-general@postgresql.org) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-general
Re: [GENERAL] Postgres no longer starts
On Wednesday, May 30, 2012 08:22:58 PM Bart Lateur wrote: Luckily this is a development machine, but as we don't know what causes the problem we fear we might one day face the exact same problem where it does matter: on a production machine. So we'd like to know exactly what went wrong.. Change selinux to permissive instead of enforcing and see if PostgreSQL then runs. If it does, you can look at the selinux logging to see what would have been denied in enforcing mode, and hopefully fix it from there. -- Sent via pgsql-general mailing list (pgsql-general@postgresql.org) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-general
Re: [GENERAL] Postgres no longer starts
Alan Hodgson ahodg...@simkin.ca writes: On Wednesday, May 30, 2012 08:22:58 PM Bart Lateur wrote: Luckily this is a development machine, but as we don't know what causes the problem we fear we might one day face the exact same problem where it does matter: on a production machine. So we'd like to know exactly what went wrong.. Change selinux to permissive instead of enforcing and see if PostgreSQL then runs. If it does, you can look at the selinux logging to see what would have been denied in enforcing mode, and hopefully fix it from there. Yeah, I concur that this smells like a selinux issue. Most likely, the software update you did messed up the selinux context settings for some files. restorecon should be able to fix it for you, if so. As Alan says, the kernel log (or separate avc log, depending on how your system is set up) should show evidence of the problem if this is where it is. regards, tom lane -- Sent via pgsql-general mailing list (pgsql-general@postgresql.org) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-general
