Fixing Server PostgreSQL Services

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Level 3

952 points

Fixing Server PostgreSQL Services

A few weeks ago, my hard drive died on me. I hadn't backed up in a while, so I used DataRescue to recover most of my drive (and replaced anything it marked as corrupt) followed by a clean install and migration from the recovered data. However, I don't think it did a great job with permissions. I think I've fixed most of it, but I'm having some issues with Server. In the logs, I see the following message constantly:

Aug 8 01:20:28 shakespeare com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.postgres[491]): Exited with code: 2

Aug 8 01:20:28 shakespeare com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.postgres): Throttling respawn: Will start in 10 seconds

In Server, it can't load the settings for several services (wiki, profile manager, mail) and gives me the following message:

An error occurred on the server while reading settings.

The error occurred while reading settings for the Mail service.

At the same time, in the console I see:

Aug 8 22:27:51 shakespeare.local collabd[18403]: [CSConnectionPool:152 8481000 +0ms] Could not open a connection to Postgres. Please make sure it is running and has the correct access.

I've also seen other postgre related log messages:

Aug 7 23:51:28 shakespeare.local sudo[1248]: root : user NOT in sudoers ; TTY=unknown ; PWD=/ ; USER=_postgres ; COMMAND=/Applications/Server.app/Contents/ServerRoot/usr/bin/initdb --encoding UTF8 -D /Library/Server/PostgreSQL For Server Services/Data

Aug 7 23:51:43 shakespeare.local serveradmin[1918]: servermgr_postgres_server: waiting for postgres to respond

From all of this, I sermize that it's a permissions issue related to the user _postgres. Does anyone know how to fix this? Which file's permissions should I look at?

MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2009), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.4)

Posted on Aug 8, 2013 7:32 PM

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Answer 1

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,739 points

Aug 8, 2013 10:08 PM in response to khassani

If you have more than one user account, you must be logged in as an administrator to carry out these instructions.

Triple-click anywhere in the line below to select it:

sudo grep root /e*/su* | open -f -a TextEdit

Copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C).

Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.

Paste into the Terminal window (command-V). You'll be prompted for your login password. Nothing will be displayed when you type it. If you don’t have a login password, you’ll need to set one before you can run the command. You may get a one-time warning not to screw up. Confirm. You don't need to post the warning.

If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator. Log in as one and start over.

A TextEdit window will open. If the command produced no output, the window will be empty. Post the contents of the TextEdit window (not the Terminal window), if any — the text, please, not a screenshot. The title of the window doesn't matter, and you don't need to post that.

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Answer 2

khassani Author

Level 3

952 points

Aug 9, 2013 5:45 AM in response to Linc Davis

I got the following text:

# This file MUST be edited with the 'visudo' command as root.

root ALL=(ALL) ALL

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Answer 3

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,739 points

Aug 9, 2013 8:41 AM in response to khassani

Delete the file

/Library/Server/PostgreSQL/Data/postmaster.pid

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Answer 4

khassani Author

Level 3

952 points

Aug 9, 2013 10:06 AM in response to Linc Davis

I'll give that a try when I get home tonight, but I have already tried deleting the app and the /Library/Server directory. That didn't seem to help.

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Answer 5

khassani Author

Level 3

952 points

Aug 9, 2013 7:59 PM in response to Linc Davis

The only dir in /Library/Server/PostgreSQL is Config

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Answer 6

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,739 points

Aug 9, 2013 9:37 PM in response to khassani

Your migration of the server data wasn't successful. I suggest you move the Server application to the Trash, which should get you a prompt to archive the data. Then put back the application, launch it, and set up the server. Some of your data may be preserved. The rest you'll either have to recreate or migrate in some other way.

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Answer 7

khassani Author

Level 3

952 points

Aug 9, 2013 10:43 PM in response to Linc Davis

I'm fairly certain it's a permissions issue. I've already tried deleting the app.

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Answer 8

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,739 points

Aug 10, 2013 7:01 AM in response to khassani

What do you get from this:

ls -@Oae /L*/S*/Po*

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Answer 9

khassani Author

Level 3

952 points

Aug 10, 2013 8:17 AM in response to Linc Davis

/Library/Server/PostgreSQL:

. .. Config

/Library/Server/PostgreSQL For Server Services:

. .. Config Data Socket

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Answer 10

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,739 points

Aug 10, 2013 9:09 AM in response to khassani

Sorry, that should have been:

ls -@Oaen /L*/S*/Po*

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Answer 11

khassani Author

Level 3

952 points

Aug 10, 2013 12:33 PM in response to Linc Davis

Library/Server/PostgreSQL:

total 0

drwxr-xr-x 3 216 216 - 102 Aug 7 23:51 .

drwxr-xr-x 19 0 0 - 646 Aug 7 23:52 ..

drwxr-xr-x 3 216 216 - 102 Aug 7 23:51 Config

/Library/Server/PostgreSQL For Server Services:

total 0

drwxr-xr-x 5 216 216 - 170 Aug 7 23:51 .

drwxr-xr-x 19 0 0 - 646 Aug 7 23:52 ..

drwxr-xr-x 3 216 216 - 102 Aug 7 23:51 Config

drwx------ 2 216 216 - 68 Aug 7 23:51 Data

drwxr-xr-x 2 216 216 - 68 Aug 7 23:51 Socket

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Answer 12

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,739 points

Aug 10, 2013 1:53 PM in response to khassani

Those permissions are correct. Try deleting this:

/Library/Server/PostgreSQL For Server Services/Data/postmaster.pid

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Answer 13

khassani Author

Level 3

952 points

Aug 10, 2013 2:06 PM in response to Linc Davis

Data dir is empty. I've already tried deleting the entire /Library/Server dir and the app, so any solution that involves just those probably won't work. I think it has to do with one of the files in /etc, but I'm not familiar enough with it to figure out which.

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Answer 14

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,739 points

Aug 10, 2013 2:14 PM in response to khassani

You'll have to wipe everything out and start fresh.

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Answer 15

sohilr

Level 1

0 points

Mar 15, 2014 11:39 AM in response to Linc Davis

Hi Linc,

I get the following error for

ls -@Oaen /L*/S*/Po*

PostgreSQL For Server Services: Permission denied

How do I fix this error ? While installing Server.app it said configuration settings failed.

Thanks,

Sohil

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