Failed to load sql modules into the database cluster during PostgreSQL Installation - postgresql

Question

I have attempted to install PostgreSQL 9.4 and 8.4 multiple times and it is failing no matter what I have tried. I am attempting to install on Windows 7 SP1 x64. After each failed install I have uninstalled and deleted the installation folder to start fresh.
Each time I attempt the install I get an error pop up near the end of installation that says:
"failed to load sql modules into the database cluster".
Then another error pop up displays immediately after that says:
"Error running post install step. Installation may not complete correctly. Error reading C:/Program Files/PostgreSQL/9.4/postgresql.conf"
I have attempted installation with the following actions:
Always installed as administrator
Turned off all virus protection and windows firewall
Changed the installation directory to something other than the Program Files directory.
Changed the data directory to something other than the installation directory of postgres
None of the actions above have helped and I always receive the error. Any help that someone can provide would be greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

Encountered a very similar problem that OP is reporting today while installing Postgres 9.4.
It turns out that the password generator I was using has made a password that contains non-alphanumeric characters. ("^") I believe was the culprit in this case. Removing that allowed the installation of Postgres 9.4 (Windows 64 bit) to complete.
Very easy fix once you've found it, but the error message that comes up is not descriptive, so in this case I didn't notice at first what I was doing wrong.

Answer 2

I was getting this same error when trying to install PostgreSQL v9.4.4 on Windows 10 Pro. Starting with a solution hosted on Stack Exchange, I came up with the following steps that allowed the installer to run successfully:
1) Create a new user account, called postgres
2) Add the new account to the Administrators and Power Users groups
3) Restart the computer
NOTE: I added step #3, since step #4 didn't work without it
4) Run a command prompt as the postgres user, using the command:
runas /user:postgres cmd.exe
5) Run the installer from the postgres command window
6) Delete the postgres user account, as well as the user directory
NOTE: I added step #6, since the postgres account is not required after installation

Answer 3

What worked for me is, during the install, specifying a Postgre SQL data folder that's outside of any Windows user profile directory (C:\Users), such as C:\postgres-data.
My setup:
Win 10 Pro
PostgreSQL 9.5 RC1
I ran into this issue when I tried setting PostgreSQL's data directory somewhere under my user profile's directory, such us somewhere under "My Documents".
I tried Jeff G's solution and it didn't work at first. It worked only when I kept the data directory as the default (C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\9.5\data). So then I tested further and tried setting the data directory to somewhere outside of any user profile directories (i.e. somewhere that isn't under C:\Users). For example, C:\postgres-data and this worked.
I then just tried using that directory with my default user, and not bothering with the postgres temp user as outlined in Jeff G's solution and that also worked. So in the end, it had to do with my data directory being somewhere under C:\Users. As long as it was outside of that, it worked.

Answer 4

None of these answers here helped me, finally I solved this problem by creating the folder before the installation (C:\PostgreSQL\data) and giving it full access for the group "Users".
Windows 7 x64, postgresql-9.5.2-1-windows-x64

Answer 5

Hope It's Work.
1.)Uninstall PostgreSQL
2.)Delete the postgres user if it still exists :
net user postgres /delete
3.) Create the postgres user with a password you can remember:
net user /add postgres
4.) Add the postgres user to the Administrators group:
net localgroup administrators postgres /add
5.) Add the postgres user to the Power Users group
net localgroup "power users" postgres /add
6.) Run a command window as the postgres user:
runas /user:postgres cmd.exe
7.) Change user postgres and install postgresql
8.)Back your and remove the postgres user from the Administrators group.
net localgroup administrators postgres /delete

Answer 6

I had the same error ("Failed to load SQL modules into the database cluster.") when installing on W2K12R2 using the EnterpriseDB installer linked to from the PostgreSQL Windows download page. I tried running the installer with admin privs, and using the postgres-user solution offered by Jeff G, but neither worked. Finally I tried the second installer, BigSQL, and that installed without issue.

Answer 7

When installing PostgreSQL, do not use the following symbols in your database's admin password: %, <, and >.
Bug report and problem solution here

Answer 8

Changed the data directory to something other than the installation directory of postgres
Make sure NETWORK SERVICE has read/write permissions on that folder, the installation was failing for me until I did this.

Answer 9

I had this issue too with 9.5 and got around it by:
Installing with the default data folder.
Making sure my new data folder had full control access for the "NETWORK SERVICE" account.
Then changing the default PGDATA folder as per this instruction: https://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/Change_the_default_PGDATA_directory_on_Windows

Answer 10

I had the same problem, and noticed that some Postgres .bat files were opening in a text editor. Text editors opening files during installation isn't too uncommon, but I noticed these batch files were setting directory permissions. I then found that .bat files were set to open in a text editor (Notepad++) by default. I changed the default program for .bat files, uninstalled Postgres, re-ran the installer, and it worked perfectly. Hope this helps.

Answer 11

I had the same problem before. I solved this by installing Visual Studio C++ Express first.

Answer 12

I had the same experience as #gomisha. #Jeff G's solution did not work for me no matter which user ran the installer.
As long as the target data directory was anywhere under c:\users, the install or database cluster init would fail.
I was successful after creating c:\postgresql-data and ensuring that the postgres user had full access in the 'effective access' tool.
Note: I did not use control userpasswords2 to set up the postgres user; I did it through the traditional crappy Windows 10 user wizard that tries to make the user sign up for hotmail. I did run the install as postgres.

Answer 13

I was getting this issue with the BigSQL windows installer PostgreSQL-9.6.5-1-win64-bigsql.exe
The problem turned out to be that my system path was too long. After removing some uncessary junk from my System Path, and then reinstalling, the problem was gone.

Answer 14

One of the answers here is the only thing that worked on my machine:
I had the same error message when trying to install 9.2.4. My issue
was because even though the Win2k8 server had %SYSTEMROOT%\system32 as
part of the path, no programs could "see" anything in
C:\Windows\system32. The installer heavily uses icacls.exe during the
init routine. Since my path was screwed up, the installer bombed out.
Once I explicitly added C:\Windows\system32 to the SYSTEM's Path
environment variable and re-ran the installer as an admin, everything
worked fine.
Credits to the user.

Answer 15

Go to services.msc
Search for postgres service
Go to Log On tab
Select local account
Profit

Answer 16

The alternative solution for problems with PostgreSQL installer is setting this up with a Docker.
Install Docker Desktop
https://www.docker.com/products/docker-desktop/
Start installed Docker Desktop
In PowerShell, run:
docker pull postgres
In PowerShell, run:
docker run -d -p 5432:5432 --name postgres -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=mypassword postgres
Now you can connect to the Postgres server for example with pgAdmin on the same machine, using:
host: localhost
port: 5432
maintenance database: postgres
username: postgres
password: mypassword

Answer 17

I think this would be better as individual comments above, but I don't have the required rep. I just spent days on this, with Postgres 10 on Win 10 Creators. My "answer" was to let Postgres put the data in its default install folder instead of my User folder (where it would be automatically backed-up).
1. This problem can happen with no reported install errors at all. On my very first try, I saw:
Failed to load SQL modules into the database cluster.
But that seemed to be due to:
Executing C:\Users\loren\AppData\Local\Temp\postgresql_installer_aee8e5a76f\vcredist_x64.exe /passive /norestart
Script exit code: 3010
MSI (s) (AC:FC) [14:21:35:341]: Product: Microsoft Visual C++ 2013 x86 Minimum Runtime - 12.0.40660.
Restart required. The installation or update for the product required a restart for all changes to take effect.
The restart was deferred to a later time.
Restarting Windows after the failure of the rest of the Postgres installation did not let Postgres run.
Once VC was in place, uninstalling and re-installing Postgres (still with its data in my User folder) completed with no reported errors. But every attempt to access it, by any means, still resulted in something like this:
C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\10\bin>psql
psql: could not connect to server: Connection refused (0x0000274D/10061)
Is the server running on host "localhost" (::1) and accepting
TCP/IP connections on port 5432?
could not connect to server: Connection refused (0x0000274D/10061)
Is the server running on host "localhost" (127.0.0.1) and accepting
TCP/IP connections on port 5432?
The RawCap sniffer showed TCP SYN followed immediately by RST,ACK on localhost for both v4 and v6 for each try. Netstat did not see port 5432 in use at all. All Postgres runtime logs were totally empty. In Windows Services, I could manually start the postgresql-x64-10 service, but it immediately stopped itself, with the note that some services do that normally.
2. I tried moving the data directory via the Postgres wiki procedure. Apparently for Postgres 10 it is incomplete. It does not deal with:
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\PostgreSQL\Installations\postgresql-x64-10\Data Directory
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\PostgreSQL\Services\postgresql-x64-10\Data Directory
C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\10\pg_env.bat
C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\10\scripts\serverctl.vbs
But fixing every data file instance I could find did not let it run. And even after fixing all those, and uninstalling and re-installing again with the default location, the new pgAdmin4 somehow still remembered my original User data directory location!
3. I did not try giving NETWORK SERVICE read/write permissions on my User folder. Once the default install worked I wanted to get on with my original project... Maybe that would have worked.