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I'm trying to move my databases to another drive.

With postmaster off, I create:

/home/pgsql

mv /var/lib/pgsql/data/base /home/pgsql/


I make sure that /home/pgsql is owned by postgres, and only 'rwx' for
the owner. All the permissions look fine.

from /var/lib/pgsql/data, I do

ln -s /home/pgsql/base

Of course the link permissions look like:

lrwxrwxrwx 1 postgres postgres 16 Sep 28 14:21 base -> /home/pgsql/base


The postmaster starts, but attempts to access the database complain that
permission is denied:

$ psql -l
psql: FATAL: could not access directory "/var/lib/pgsql/data/base/1":
Permission denied


Any clues about why this won't work?
I've searched the archives, but most references were to invalid
permissions on the directories and I'm pretty sure I've got those right.

All my pgsql dirs look pretty much like:
drwx------ 3 postgres postgres 4096 Sep 28 14:21 pgsql

Both in the original /var/lib/pgsql area, and the /home/pgsql area.


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Hi Jeffrey

Jeffrey Tenny wrote:

> I'm trying to move my databases to another drive.
>
> With postmaster off, I create:
>
> /home/pgsql
>
> mv /var/lib/pgsql/data/base /home/pgsql/
>
>
> I make sure that /home/pgsql is owned by postgres, and only 'rwx' for
> the owner. All the permissions look fine.
>
> from /var/lib/pgsql/data, I do
>
> ln -s /home/pgsql/base
>
> Of course the link permissions look like:
>
> lrwxrwxrwx 1 postgres postgres 16 Sep 28 14:21 base -> /home/pgsql/base
>
>
> The postmaster starts, but attempts to access the database complain
> that permission is denied:
>
> $ psql -l
> psql: FATAL: could not access directory "/var/lib/pgsql/data/base/1":
> Permission denied
>
>
> Any clues about why this won't work?
> I've searched the archives, but most references were to invalid
> permissions on the directories and I'm pretty sure I've got those right.
>
> All my pgsql dirs look pretty much like:
> drwx------ 3 postgres postgres 4096 Sep 28 14:21 pgsql
>
> Both in the original /var/lib/pgsql area, and the /home/pgsql area.
>

Try to issue chown -R postgres.postgres /home/pgsql

Sergiusz


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TIP 3: Have you checked our extensive FAQ?

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/faq

Jeffrey Tenny <jeffrey.tenny@comcast.net> writes:
> I'm trying to move my databases to another drive.

On what platform?

One theory that fits the available facts is that you're running on a
machine with SELinux enabled; the usual selinux policy forbids the
postmaster from accessing files outside /var/lib/pgsql.

regards, tom lane

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TIP 6: explain analyze is your friend

Sorry, I take that back. The platform is Fedora Core 4, so SELinux may
be a concern, though during the installation I selected all the minimal
options for SELinux because I wasn't prepared to deal with it.

Apologies for the previous incorrect answer, I was typing it on a Redhat
9 machine :-)


Jeffrey Tenny wrote:
> The platform is Redhat 9, so no SELinux.
>
> Tom Lane wrote:
>
>> Jeffrey Tenny <jeffrey.tenny@comcast.net> writes:
>>
>>> I'm trying to move my databases to another drive.
>>
>>
>>
>> On what platform?
>>
>> One theory that fits the available facts is that you're running on a
>> machine with SELinux enabled; the usual selinux policy forbids the
>> postmaster from accessing files outside /var/lib/pgsql.
>>
>> regards, tom lane
>>
>> ---------------------------(end of broadcast)---------------------------
>> TIP 6: explain analyze is your friend
>>
>

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TIP 2: Don't 'kill -9' the postmaster

The platform is Redhat 9, so no SELinux.

Tom Lane wrote:
> Jeffrey Tenny <jeffrey.tenny@comcast.net> writes:
>
>>I'm trying to move my databases to another drive.
>
>
> On what platform?
>
> One theory that fits the available facts is that you're running on a
> machine with SELinux enabled; the usual selinux policy forbids the
> postmaster from accessing files outside /var/lib/pgsql.
>
> regards, tom lane
>
> ---------------------------(end of broadcast)---------------------------
> TIP 6: explain analyze is your friend
>

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TIP 3: Have you checked our extensive FAQ?

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/faq

Sergiusz Jarczyk wrote:
>
> Try to issue chown -R postgres.postgres /home/pgsql
>

I checked the ownership, and it was already ok because aside from
the 'root' creation of the alternate directory location and assigning it
the correct ownership and permissions, I did the 'mv' of the old
directory to the new location logged in as 'postgres'.

Ditto the symlink creation (did it as 'postgres').


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I've been focusing on the potentially simpler case of just relocating
the 'base' directory, so that I don't have to worry about whether
postmaster is finding my config files and such.

I was hoping the symlink would be a pretty transparent operation,
and it doesn't seem that other people have had difficulty doing similar
th ings.

Sergiusz Jarczyk wrote:
> Hi again
> Have you tried to run the postmaster with the new location by hand, i.e.:
> postmaster -i -D /home/pgsql
>
> Sergiusz
>
>

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TIP 5: don't forget to increase your free space map settings

Hi again
Have you tried to run the postmaster with the new location by hand, i.e.:
postmaster -i -D /home/pgsql

Sergiusz


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TIP 5: don't forget to increase your free space map settings

Jeffrey Tenny <jeffrey.tenny@comcast.net> writes:
> Sorry, I take that back. The platform is Fedora Core 4, so SELinux may
> be a concern, though during the installation I selected all the minimal
> options for SELinux because I wasn't prepared to deal with it.

Better check what /usr/sbin/getenforce tells you, then... or look in
/var/log/messages to see if the postmaster's operations are being
refused.

regards, tom lane

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TIP 6: explain analyze is your friend

Tom Lane wrote:
> Jeffrey Tenny <jeffrey.tenny@comcast.net> writes:
>
>>Sorry, I take that back. The platform is Fedora Core 4, so SELinux may
>>be a concern, though during the installation I selected all the minimal
>>options for SELinux because I wasn't prepared to deal with it.
>
>
> Better check what /usr/sbin/getenforce tells you, then... or look in
> /var/log/messages to see if the postmaster's operations are being
> refused.
>

Interesting. getenforce says "Enforcing".
There are no suspicious messages in /var/log/messages or any other log I
can find there.


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TIP 5: don't forget to increase your free space map settings