pgpool-II authentication failure

Question

I am using pgpool-II 3.2.1 in from of two PostgreSQL 9.1 configured as master-hot standby.

When trying to authenticate from PGAdmin I get:

Error connecting to the server: FATAL:  password authentication failed for user "postgres"

In pgpool logs I see:

2012-11-01 14:40:13 LOG:   pid 3023: connection received: host=89.xxx.xxx.xxx port=57150
2012-11-01 14:40:13 DEBUG: pid 3023: Protocol Major: 1234 Minor: 5679 database:  user: 
2012-11-01 14:40:13 DEBUG: pid 3023: SSLRequest from client
2012-11-01 14:40:13 DEBUG: pid 3023: pool_ssl: SSL requested but SSL support is not available
2012-11-01 14:40:13 DEBUG: pid 3023: read_startup_packet: application_name: pgAdmin III - Browser
2012-11-01 14:40:13 DEBUG: pid 3023: Protocol Major: 3 Minor: 0 database: postgres user: postgres
2012-11-01 14:40:13 DEBUG: pid 3023: new_connection: connecting 0 backend
2012-11-01 14:40:13 DEBUG: pid 3023: new_connection: connecting 1 backend
2012-11-01 14:40:13 DEBUG: pid 3023: pool_ssl: SSL requested but SSL support is not available
2012-11-01 14:40:13 DEBUG: pid 3023: pool_ssl: SSL requested but SSL support is not available
2012-11-01 14:40:13 DEBUG: pid 3023: pool_read_message_length: slot: 0 length: 12
2012-11-01 14:40:13 DEBUG: pid 3023: pool_read_message_length: slot: 1 length: 12
2012-11-01 14:40:13 DEBUG: pid 3023: pool_do_auth: auth kind:5
2012-11-01 14:40:13 DEBUG: pid 3023: trying md5 authentication
2012-11-01 14:40:13 DEBUG: pid 3023: password does not match: frontend:md5286c9c7c4ac8a365170e0f448c99ad48 pgpool:md5cf0e9615c13af6243edfd11d2461d12e
2012-11-01 14:40:13 DEBUG: pid 3023: do_md5failed in slot 0

What is really strange is that the md5 hashes from logs change with each request so it doesn't really make sense comparing with the one I set in both /usr/local/etc/pool_passwd and /usr/local/etc/pcp.conf

Can you help me spot the configuration issue?

Answer 1

It depends on how you use "pg_md5"... if you're not including the username, then it will generate the wrong MD5 as no doubt that's used in the salt:

root:/usr/local/etc# pg_md5 password1
7c6a180b36896a0a8c02787eeafb0e4c

But if you use the correct syntax, then you get the correct entry automatically put into your pool_password file:

root:/usr/local/etc# pg_md5 -m -u greg password1
root@1:/usr/local/etc# grep greg: pool_passwd
greg:md53c5b45b54c89f8af9074a2ad371e2c12

Answer 2

Found the problem!

pg_md5 which is shipped together with pgpool generated an incorrect md5 (when I used it). After I replaced it in the config with the md5 from the PostgreSQL DB it worked. You can get the DB md5 by running the following SQL query:

select passwd from pg_shadow where usename = 'username';