New HPSIM Installation- DB Config Failure - Problem + Solution

[John Smith_82]

I'm not sure how open the forums are to problem + solution type postings, but I wanted to share a unique troubleshooting experience regarding PGSQL on RHEL 3. Background: HPSIM 4.2 running, decided to whack the HPSIM installation and do a clean install to ver 5.

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Problems with DB configuration:
8. Database Configuration
- Failed

1) RTFM (did that), found the appropriate log files:

========== Run Postconfigure ===============
Fri Jan 6 17:16:33 CST 2006 begin postConfigure PgSQL
Try to stop PostgreSQL first.
Stopping postgresql service: [FAILED]
Try to start PostgreSQL for usage.
Starting postgresql service: [FAILED]
Fri Jan 6 17:16:53 CST 2006 end postConfigure PgSQL

2) Ok, so there's a problem with the HP-Installed PGSQL. /etc/init.d/postgresql start = Failed.

Jan 6 17:27:41 system name postgresql: Starting postgresql service: failed

3) strace -f was pretty unhelpful as far as determining the reason pgsql would not start or stop, however "lsof | grep -i tcp" showed that the port was in use by postmaster, a pgsql component.

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It turns out that stopping and removing the packages per the hp instructions did not fully stop one of the pgsql programs and it was still bound to 5432.

One of the ways I think the HPSIM install script could be improved is to run:
lsof | grep -i tcp | grep 5432
and log a port binding type of error message to make tracking down and troubleshooting this type of problem a bit easier for end users. Otherwise, the lesson here for me is to double check that programs that I've uninstalled are not only removed, but that no stray processes are still running.