Postgresql: cannot create tablespace due to permissions - postgresql

I know there has been a dozen times a similar question, but I could not find an answer that worked for me.
I have a Debian 9 machine, fresh from install on which I have installed a Postgresql 9.6 server.
I am trying to create a new tablespace but it fails. The command :
CREATE TABLESPACE newTableSPace LOCATION '/DATA/PostgreSQL/';
Returns the following error :
ERROR: could not set permissions on directory "/DATA/PostgreSQL": Permission denied
SQL state: 42501
So, after a few basis searches, I have already checked the following points :
The directory /DATA/PostgreSQL exists
Its owner/group is postgres:postgres
The rights on the directory are 770
SELinux is apparently not installed (in Synaptic, libselinux1 is installed, but all selinux commands that I have tried returned me "command not found". Examples : selinuxenabled, setenforce 0).
I am running out of ideas.
Anybody has a suggestion ?

And I just found the solution !
The problem was the permissions of the user postgres not on directory /DATA/PostgreSQL/ but on the directory /DATA, on which it had no permission at all (it belonged to the current user with rights 770).
I have changed the permissions on this folder to 775. I guess another way would be to make the user postgres belong to the group that owns the DATA folder.

Hey I just found a possible solution, the thing is that you´ll have to give everyone access to the directory you to write in.
Right click in the directory ".../targetDirectory".
Properties> Security> In Group /usernames click on "edit"
Add another group or username, type "Everyone" and click "OK"
If you need to add more permisson to this group you check the permissions and press Ok.
You could see it in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQzBgEFkdes
This worked for me creating tablespaces and copy files from one directory to another one.
Hope this helps.

Related

Creating symbolic links resulting in 500 error

Currently running a WHM / Cpanel server running Centos. Server seems to be running fine no issues there. However I'm using a deployment process to put files outside of the document root. e.g.
~/deployment
instead of:
~/public_html
Obviously I need to point public_html to this folder so my site will run. So, I'm removing the public_html and creating a symlink and pointing it to the new deployment folder. This results in a 500 error.
So looking at the logs I've discovered that it produces the following error:
Directory "/home/xyz/deployment" is writeable by group
Checking the file permissions looks as though the symlink is 777 where i need it to be 755 for the server to allow viewing.
Is there a setting in WHM ? Is there a setting in Centos? I have another box running that doesn't have this issue so I'm assuming that this is related to the current setup of this machine.
Any help would be appreciated, thanks.
when you create a hard link from a file or folder, This file/folder inherits the accesses and permissions of the original file/folder, and in soft link it will be 777 permission, so i think you can use rsync options for both purpose :
1- have a folder with all files in source
2- have your own permissions in folder

PostgreSQL: Error importing csv file from shared network folder

My goal is to import csv file to postgresql database.
my file is located in network shared folder and I do not have no option to make it in a local folder.
My Folder located in :
"smb://file-srv/doc/myfile.csv"
When I run my this PostgreSQL script:
COPY tbl_data
FROM 'smb://file-srv/doc/myfile.csv' DELIMITER ',' CSV;
I would get this error :
ERROR: could not open file "smb://file-srv/doc/myfile.csv" for reading: No such file or directory
SQL state: 58P01
I have no problem to access the file and open it.
I am using PostgreSQL 9.6 under Ubuntu 16.04.
Please Advice how to fix this problem.
Update
When I try to access the file with postgres user I would have same error:
postgres#file-srv:~$$ cat smb://file-srv/doc/myfile.csv
cat: 'smb://file-srv/doc/myfile.csv' : No such file or directory
As I mention when I user mounted folder I created I can access the file.
it is about permission. you have to check read access on file and folders.
also, logging with superuser access may solve your problem.
In short, this is a permissions issue: Your network share is likely locally mounted to your user's UID, while the PostgreSQL server is running as the postgres user.
Second, when you log into your database, there is not an overlap between the database's users and the system's users, even if you have the same username. This means that when you request a file from your network share, the DB user, in this case postgres, does not have the necessary permissions.
To see this, and assuming you have root access on the box in question, you might try to become the postgres user and see that you cannot access the file:
$ sudo su - postgres
$ cat /run/user/.../smb.../yourfile.csv
Permission denied
The fix to your issue will involve -- somehow -- making the file or share accessible to the postgres user. Copying is certainly the quickest way. But that's off the table. You could mount the share (perhaps as read only) as the postgres user. You might do this in fstab.
However, unless this is going to be an automated detail that happens regularly, this seems like heroics. Without more information as to why you can't copy locally, I suggest copying the file locally.

why I can not create tablespace in postgresql

I have installed centos 6.3 On vmware, and the postgresql is self-contained, the Version is PostgreSQL 8.4.13 on i386-redhat-linux-gnu.
I want to create a tablespace with command like This:
create tablespace foo LOCATION '/usr/foo1';
But I am getting Error like this:
ERROR: could not set permissions on directory "/tmp/foo1": Permission denied
Then I checked the /tmp/foo1's owner and the owner is indeed postgres,
So I confused about this.
Can anyone help me?
things I would check:
Usually /tmp should have open permissions. However if they are closed off...
What filesystem is /tmp on? Does it support file permissions?
What are the appropriate filesystem mounting options or such for /tmp? Could these interfere?

postgresql installation failed

I tried to install postgresql 8.4 in my windows 7 (64 bit). But it fails with following messages in log
Initialising the database cluster (this may take a few minutes)...
Executing cscript //NoLogo "C:\PostgreSQL\8.4/installer/server/initcluster.vbs" "postgres" "postgres" "****" "C:\PostgreSQL\8.4" "C:\PostgreSQL\data" 5432 "DEFAULT"
Script exit code: 1
Script output:
CScript Error: Can't find script engine "VBScript" for script "C:\PostgreSQL\8.4\installer\server\initcluster.vbs".
Script stderr:
Program ended with an error exit code
Error running cscript //NoLogo "C:\PostgreSQL\8.4/installer/server/initcluster.vbs" "postgres" "postgres" "****" "C:\PostgreSQL\8.4" "C:\PostgreSQL\data" 5432 "DEFAULT" : Program ended with an error exit code
Problem running post-install step. Installation may not complete correctly
The database cluster initialisation failed.
Creating Uninstaller
Creating uninstaller 25%
Creating uninstaller 50%
Creating uninstaller 75%
I have googled about this and run the command 'regsvr32 vbscript.dll' and it shows the message 'DllRegisterServer in vbscript.dll is succeeded', but it haven't solved my issue.
Also I set the default value for {B54F3741-5B07-11cf-A4B0-00AA004A55E8} in registry to the file path of vbscript.dll, but it also haven't solved my issue.
How to fix this issue?
Following link solve my issue
http://www.geekscribes.net/blog/2009/04/22/postgresql-database-cluster-initialisation-failed-solution/
The article text:
I’ll keep this one short and sweet. For those of you that have tried
to install PostgreSQL (mine was 8.3.7-1) on Windows Vista and got the
error Database Cluster Initialisation Failed error at the end of the
install, read this.
The problem is that Vista has some safety features associated with
setting permissions on the Program Files folder. Basically, even if
you are an admin, you can’t change permissions on some folders like
Program Files and Windows folder itself. This causes initdb to be
unable to create some folders and the database cluster. What this
means for you is that you need to install PostgreSQL in another folder
that is not inside Program Files.
By the way, if you have forgotten your Postgres account password while
installing the first time, just open a Command Prompt in Vista (If you
don’t know how, Google for it). Then type the command “net user”. You
will see a list of users on your computer. Find Postgre’s account.
It’s usually “postgres“. Then you need to change its password by
typing “net user postgres new_password” where new_password is… well, a
new password for the account. You will be needing that postgres
account during install. You will need admin privileges to do this
change however.
Firstly, uninstall any failed installations. Use the Control Panel or
the PostgreSQL installer in the install folder.
During the install, you will be prompted to choose where you want to
install the program. Just select a location in another place. Like
“C:\PostgreSQL” or something similar. It may even be on your desktop.
But not inside Program Files. Not inside Windows folder. However, it’s
not as easy. Bear with me.
After the install, you will still see that darned error message (or
something like non-fatal error occured). Do not despair! (For Windows
Power Users, we are just assigning Full Control permission to Postgres
account on the new PostgreSQL install folder). For other users, read
on if you don’t know how to do it.
Go to where you just installed PostgreSQL. In this case, the C:
drive. There, right-click on the folder (usually called PostgreSQL),
and go to Properties – Security tab. Click on the Edit button. You
will now see some usernames and other stuff. Click on the Add button.
In the “Enter the object names to select” box, enter “postgres” and
press Check. Postgres’ user account should appear there. Click on Ok.
Now from the “Group or Usernames” box, select the Postgres account. In
the window below, with lots of checkboxes, assign permission “Full
Control” in the Allow Column to it. Note, if you don’t want to allow
full control, just give it read/write. But I just went ahead and gave
it Full Control. (I was tired and annoyed. The “World’s most advanced
open source database” had failed to install!). Click on Ok and wait a
bit for permissions to be applied.
Then, just do a re-install. Do not uninstall anything. Just run the
setup again. It’ll say that a PostgreSQL install folder already exists
and other stuff. Just click on Next until the install finishes. If you
see “file cannot be copied” errors, click on the “ignore” button when
needed.
That’s it. PostgreSQL should be up and running on Vista now. Hope it
works for you too as it did for me, and that my guide is helpful to
anybody. If it works, or if you have other solutions, let us know.
Thanks for reading! :)
I got the same result installing "postgresql-9.2.3-1-windows-x64.exe" on Windows 7 Enterprise
and the problem get solved when I change the installation path.
Try to install into "c:\postgresql" instead of "c:\program files\Postgresql"
Good luck
For me the problem was that PATH variable did not have C:\Windows\system32 and so it did not find ICACLS command to change folder permissions. So the solution is to add C:\Windows\system32 to system PATH variable (if it does not contain it already):
Control Panel -> System -> Advanced System Settings -> Advanced -> Environment Variables
Under "System variable" find and select "Path"
Click "Edit..."
Now if value does not contain path to system32 append string ;C:\Windows\system32 (or wherever your windows path is)
I've pulled shin's link from the google cache:
Original link:
http://www.geekscribes.net/blog/2009/04/22/postgresql-database-cluster-initialisation-failed-solution/
Cached link:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:RXu-5-ZzfcgJ:www.geekscribes.net/blog/2009/04/22/postgresql-database-cluster-initialisation-failed-solution/+&cd=3&hl=ro&ct=clnk
PostgreSQL Database Cluster Initialisation Failed Solution
I’ll keep this one short and sweet. For those of you that have tried to install PostgreSQL (mine was 8.3.7-1) on Windows Vista and got the error Database Cluster Initialisation Failed error at the end of the install, read this.
The problem is that Vista has some safety features associated with setting permissions on the Program Files folder. Basically, even if you are an admin, you can’t change permissions on some folders like Program Files and Windows folder itself. This causes initdb to be unable to create some folders and the database cluster. What this means for you is that you need to install PostgreSQL in another folder that is not inside Program Files.
By the way, if you have forgotten your Postgres account password while installing the first time, just open a Command Prompt in Vista (If you don’t know how, Google for it). Then type the command “net user”. You will see a list of users on your computer. Find Postgre’s account. It’s usually “postgres“. Then you need to change its password by typing “net user postgres new_password” where new_password is… well, a new password for the account. You will be needing that postgres account during install. You will need admin privileges to do this change however.
Firstly, uninstall any failed installations. Use the Control Panel or the PostgreSQL installer in the install folder.
During the install, you will be prompted to choose where you want to install the program. Just select a location in another place. Like “C:\PostgreSQL” or something similar. It may even be on your desktop. But not inside Program Files. Not inside Windows folder. However, it’s not as easy. Bear with me.
After the install, you will still see that darned error message (or something like non-fatal error occured). Do not despair! (For Windows Power Users, we are just assigning Full Control permission to Postgres account on the new PostgreSQL install folder). For other users, read on if you don’t know how to do it.
Go to where you just installed PostgreSQL. In this case, the C: drive. There, right-click on the folder (usually called PostgreSQL), and go to Properties – Security tab. Click on the Edit button. You will now see some usernames and other stuff. Click on the Add button. In the “Enter the object names to select” box, enter “postgres” and press Check. Postgres’ user account should appear there. Click on Ok.
Now from the “Group or Usernames” box, select the Postgres account. In the window below, with lots of checkboxes, assign permission “Full Control” in the Allow Column to it. Note, if you don’t want to allow full control, just give it read/write. But I just went ahead and gave it Full Control. (I was tired and annoyed. The “World’s most advanced open source database” had failed to install!). Click on Ok and wait a bit for permissions to be applied.
Then, just do a re-install. Do not uninstall anything. Just run the setup again. It’ll say that a PostgreSQL install folder already exists and other stuff. Just click on Next until the install finishes. If you see “file cannot be copied” errors, click on the “ignore” button when needed.
That’s it. PostgreSQL should be up and running on Vista now. Hope it works for you too as it did for me, and that my guide is helpful to anybody. If it works, or if you have other solutions, let us know. Thanks for reading!
Solution:
• Uninstall PostgreSQL
• Run command: net user postgres /delete
• Click: Control Panel -> User Accounts -> Configure advanced user profile properties -> delete all “Unknown User” instances that seem to be left from PostgreSQL installation.
• Run: compmgmt.msc -> Click Local Users and Groups -> Users -> New User… -> User name: postgres, Password: postgrespass -> Create
• Run: compmgmt.msc -> Click Local Users and Groups -> Users -> postgres ->Member of -> Add… -> Administrators -> OK
• copy the PostgreSQL installer postgresql-8.4.9-1-windows.exe to C:\
• Run: runas /user:postgres cmd.exe -> cd \ -> postgresql-8.4.9-1-windows.exe -> installed successfully without errors. Checked data folder and confirmed files created successfully.
• Run: compmgmt.msc -> Local Users and Groups -> Users -> postgres -> Member of -> Administrators -> Remove
• Run: compmgmt.msc -> Local Users and Groups -> Users -> postgres -> Member of -> Add… -> Power Users -> OK
Your Windows install is a little borked, and you will need to re-register the VBScript engine to get the installer to run.
Edit: I'm blind, the post author had already tried this.
See:
http://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/Running_%26_Installing_PostgreSQL_On_Native_Windows#The_installer_exits_with_a_runtime_installation_error.3F
I had the same problem when trying to install PostgreSQL 9.3.5-3 on a Windows 7 x64 machine (not joined to a domain) in a folder, created on the root, with full access to everybody. The problem was solved by not using ä in my password, so avoid using non-English characters in your password.
This message still occurs in Postgres v9.3.1.1.
For me, the problem was running the installer under the "Administrator" account. This doesn't work. Run it under an administrator account, avoiding the built-in "Administrator" account.
I don't really know what it's usually called, but it's the one that already exists on a fresh install; the one that cannot be changed to a Standard User; the one whose profile is stored in C:\Users\Administrator. Turns out it was a bad idea using this account; learned it the hard way.
(Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit)
Hey guys the answer is very simple just install postgresql on another folder outside program files. it prompts a non fatal error and proceeds to with the installation...
I have solved the same problem on Windows Server 2003 and postgres 9.2.9-3 by creating directory for installation beforehand, and giving full access on it to group "Users".
The answer is very simple, move the downloaded .exe file to some other folder . for ex: c:\postgres and try to install it.
your issue is due to some admin privilege issues
There seem to be many reasons cause the installation fail.
In my case, I'm using Windows 10 home edition, which has no advance user group control,
so a lot of solutions above doesn't work for me. And I guess this is why the installation fails.
What I do is just using BigSQL's installer instead of EnterpriceDB's installer,
Choose the second installer in posgresql download center
Or visit BigSQL directly.
After some struggle I came across this post. I struggled some more time and I think I finally figured it out with the help of all the invaluable input from my predecessors in this post.
My case
It's November 2018.
PostgreSQL 11.1 Winodws-x64 from EnterpriseDB as suggested by postgresql.org
Tried to install on Windows 10 (both Home and Professional)
I tried several constellations and boiled down the process to this:
Pre-installation
Uninstall any failed installations.
Add a local user "postgres" (lowercase worked for me) to your computer, assign a SIMPLE password and administrative rights. Do avoid special characters at all expenses, stick with english letters (upper and lowercase) and numbers only.
Add a folder on your computer OUTSIDE the "C:\Program Files" or Windows folder. I chose C:\PostgreSQL
Assign full control over the above folder to the postgres account.
Installation
Run the installer (postgresql-11.1-1-windows-x64.exe in my case)
use the above password and folder when prompted (not the default folder)
Post-installation
For security reasons you should now assign a proper password to the windows-user "postgres" and remove administrative rights from the account.
Test your installation by running pgAdmin and connecting to your server. However, the password for the postgres user you need to connect to the server will still be the simple one you used earlier. You may change it within pgAdmin by selecting the postgres database left, choose Tools -> Query Tool and type ALTER USER postgres WITH PASSWORD '4wligzo748o$%&'; or whatever. Execute with the flash symbol or F5.
But maybe this is wrong altogether and you should rather run a linux vm with postgreSQL server.
Struggling with this problem for days. Finally got help from the EDB team
My problem got solved by doing the following steps :
1) Open the command prompt and go to the following directory:
cd "C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\10\bin"
2) Once you are inside this "C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\10\bin" directory execute the following command:
.\initdb.exe -D "C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\10\data"
3) At the end of this command you will be promoted to execute a pg_ctl command to start the Postgres cluster. Please execute the command and once you get a message as the server started you are all set to use the Postgres database.
Note: Instead of 10 user whatever version you have installed. If the pg_ctl command in the third step gives an error after running it in \bin directory, then try running it in \data directory. After the above process re-run the installer.
I know it is not the the solution but installing 32 bit of Postgres, worked for me
I had the same problem when trying to install PostgreSQL 9.6.2 on a Windows 7 32 bit machine,but i got solution,first just uninstall the installed postgres,then delete the postgres folder from 'c' drive,delete the entry from temp file which resides in "C:\Users\AppData\Local\Temp".Then again installed postgres 9.6.2 that installed successfully.
Had this same problem trying to install on my company computer (PC running Windows 7). If you are not admin on your computer, you need to install it within your personal "User" folder (not in the "Program Files" folder(s) at the root).
If you still can't access Postgres:
Once you'd installed it under your "User" folder, use the 'Run' program and type in "services.msc" and hit enter. In the window that pops up, go down to your postgres installation, right-click and go to "properties". In the "Log On" tab, select "Local System account" then go back to the "General" tab and click "Start". It should boot after that.
After this, I was able to run "pgAdmin" and access the database (after entering the password I used during installation).
I had the same problem today when installing postgres 9.6.19 on windows 10.
Solution: Neither the installation path nor the windows path variable may contain a blank! Near to the end of the installer log file (found in wondows %temp% dir with a name like bitrock_installer_16156.log) i found:
Script stderr: "\UnxUtils\usr\local\wbin\";"C:\Program" kann
syntaktisch an dieser Stelle nicht verarbeitet werden.
where the installation directory i set as well as my windows %PATH% variable contained
C:\Program Files\
Workaround:
open a command prompt as administrator and type:
set path=C:\WINDOWS\system32
PostgreSQL-9.6.10-1-win64-bigsql.exe
And then of course choose a path not containing a blank.
That did it for me.
I encountered an issue where a username with a space in it on windows fails the postgres installation.
To test:
Reinstalled windows 10 home (restored)
Made a user account without the space
Postgres installed successfully
Very frustrating...
check the services: if any folder there postgres related stop it, and change to disable mode.
check regedit: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, HKEY_CURRENT_USER -> software -> remove postgres folder if exists.
In system environment variable: TEMP path location, remove the TEMP folder for both user and system. and Rename the TEMP to TEMP1 or something..
In system environment variable: remove path for postgres if it exists.
Now change the location of postgres.exe file to another drive.
Restart the system
Then Run postgres.exe
create a new installation directory for postgres and put /data outside.
the easiest way i solve this was:
1.- uninstall if you have already installed
2.- delete all files with failed instalations
3.- start windows in secure mode
4.- run installer in secure mode (it pops a warning but ignore) and restart
and that's it when restarted the service was running ok and everything works fine

Creating a tablespace in postgresql

I'm trying to create a tablespace in postgres, but I'm getting ownership problems. The command I'm using is:
CREATE TABLESPACE magdat OWNER maggie LOCATION '/home/john/BSTablespace'
I get the error:
ERROR: could not set permissions on directory "/home/john/BSTablespace": Operation not permitted
The folder belongs to postgres:postgres, I've tried changing it to maggie, but if I go :
chown maggie:postgres /home/john/BSTablespace
I get:
chown: invalid user: `maggie:postgres'
How come the user does not exist? If I list the users inside of postgres it does come up. Any ideas what I could be doing wrong?
I would hazard a guess that the problem lies in the permissions of the parent directory "/home/john". Your home directory is probably setup so that only your user has access (i.e chmod 700) to it (it's a good thing for your home directory to be chmod 700, don't change it).
Doing something like:
mkdir /BSTablespace
chown postgres:postgres /BSTablespace
and then
CREATE TABLESPACE magdat OWNER maggie LOCATION '/BSTablespace';
should work fine.
Regarding the user maggie: database users are not the same as OS users. That isn't to say that you couldn't have a user in both places named maggie-- but you would need to create the user in both the database and the OS for that to happen.
When you install Postgres on a Mac, and are trying to use PgAdmin to create your databases, tablespaces, etc. You need to know that the PgAdmin Utility is running under the postgres account that it created when you installed the postgres database and the utilities.
The postgres account is part of the _postgres group
( dscacheutil -q group|grep -i postgres command will list the group associated with the postgres account)
The best practice would be to create a new directory under root(/) for housing the tablespaces,(let us call it /postgresdata then make postgres:_postgres the owners of that directory, using the command below)
sudo chown postgres:_postgres /postgresdata
This should do it for you.
You could then create a subdirectory under /postgresdata for each unique table space
There is a problem with this solution. Think about it. Why do you want to create a new tablespace? Most people do it for either space limitations or performance. In both cases, that means placing each tablespace on a different drive. So, archive data goes on the slower hard-drive, while actively used data does on the SSD.
Assume your OS is on the SSD and you have mounted your slower spin up hard drive as /media/slowdrive. The same dilemma would occur if the reverse, where the spinup is the OS and SSD is the mounted.
Your solution would place the new tablespace at /newtablespace.
Do you see the problem? ... /newtablespace is on the SSD, which does not have the capacity to hold both the archival and active data. If it did, we would not be creating a new tablespace in the first place.
So, how do we solve this issue when our newtablespace is mounted at /media/slowdrive/newtablespace? In my case, the slowdrive (spinup HD) is mounted as root:root for security purposes, although I am not entirely sure about why. What you are suggesting is that I have to chage the mount of my secondary drive to postgres:postgres in addition to having the newtablespace directory as postgres:postgres. That makes no sense, especially since I use this drive for many other reasons than just a postgres tablesapce.
Joe