Postgresql cannot restart No PostgreSQL clusters exist - postgresql

Question

I want to restart my postgres using command
sudo service postgresql restart
However I'm getting the following error:
[warn] No PostgreSQL clusters exist; see "man pg_createcluster" ...
(warning).
I already have postgres running, showing through ps aux:
# ps aux| grep postgres
postgres 1 0.0 1.1 287484 24328 ? Ss 21:58 0:00 postgres
postgres 77 0.0 0.4 287608 8588 ? Ss 21:58 0:00 postgres: checkpointer process
postgres 78 0.0 0.1 287484 3884 ? Ss 21:58 0:00 postgres: writer process
postgres 79 0.0 0.4 287484 8680 ? Ss 21:58 0:00 postgres: wal writer process
postgres 80 0.0 0.3 287896 6640 ? Ss 21:58 0:00 postgres: autovacuum launcher process
postgres 81 0.0 0.1 142612 3120 ? Ss 21:58 0:00 postgres: stats collector process
root 1253 0.0 0.0 12788 972 pts/0 S+ 22:31 0:00 grep postgres
Now searching online, I found this post. I followed the solution to create a cluster:
sudo pg_createcluster 9.6 main
sudo service postgresql stop
sudo service postgresql start
After this, I am able to "restart" posgres through
sudo service postgresql restart
HOWEVER, this is not on the original cluster. As if I run ps-aux, I see a new cluster setup, this is not what I want.
# ps aux| grep postgres
postgres 1 0.0 1.1 287484 24328 ? Ss 21:58 0:00 postgres
postgres 77 0.0 0.4 287608 8588 ? Ss 21:58 0:00 postgres: checkpointer process
postgres 78 0.0 0.1 287484 3884 ? Ss 21:58 0:00 postgres: writer process
postgres 79 0.0 0.4 287484 8680 ? Ss 21:58 0:00 postgres: wal writer process
postgres 80 0.0 0.3 287896 6640 ? Ss 21:58 0:00 postgres: autovacuum launcher process
postgres 81 0.0 0.1 142612 3120 ? Ss 21:58 0:00 postgres: stats collector process
postgres 1292 0.0 1.2 287628 25680 ? S 22:42 0:00 /usr/lib/postgresql/9.6/bin/postgres -D /var/lib/postgresql/9.6/main -c config_file=/etc/postgresql/9.6/main/postgresql.conf
postgres 1294 0.0 0.1 287628 3944 ? Ss 22:42 0:00 postgres: 9.6/main: checkpointer process
postgres 1295 0.0 0.1 287628 3940 ? Ss 22:42 0:00 postgres: 9.6/main: writer process
postgres 1296 0.0 0.1 287628 3944 ? Ss 22:42 0:00 postgres: 9.6/main: wal writer process
postgres 1297 0.0 0.3 288056 6464 ? Ss 22:42 0:00 postgres: 9.6/main: autovacuum launcher process
postgres 1298 0.0 0.1 142620 3172 ? Ss 22:42 0:00 postgres: 9.6/main: stats collector process
root 1329 0.0 0.0 12788 968 pts/0 S+ 22:42 0:00 grep postgres
All the start/restart/stop is all applied to the new cluster. I just want to restart the original cluster. How can I do that?

Answer 1

I found that this happened because the postgresql db was running inside a container. To restart the database, I'll need to restart the docker container