gptext-start or gptext-stop fails with error message "process already running"

Products

• VMware Tanzu Greenplum

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

gptext-start or gptext-stop fails with the error message shown below: 

[gpadmin@mdw ~]$ gptext-start
20160425:12:21:12:003862 gptext-start:mdw:gpadmin-[INFO]:-Retrieving configuration from database...
20160425:12:21:12:003862 gptext-start:mdw:gpadmin-[CRITICAL]:-Error starting GPText cluster: GPText start process already running
20160425:12:21:12:003862 gptext-start:mdw:gpadmin-[ERROR]:-Some of the GPText instances failed to start.

Environment

Cause

gptext-start and gptext-stop create a temporary .pid file under /usr/local/greenplum-text-1.x/ during the run length of these commands.

The file is usually called:

• /usr/local/greenplum-text-1.3.0.2/gptext-start.pid
• /usr/local/greenplum-text-1.3.0.2/gptext-stop.pid

If this file already exists when gptext-start or gptext-stop is run, it will fail with the above error.  

Note: Please verify that the pid in the file does not exist before renaming it. If the pid exists in the system, then it means that some other session is also attempting a gptext-start or gptext-stop. In that case, do not rename the file.      

The command to check if pid exists is: ps -ef | grep <pid>

Resolution

Check if there is an existing gptext*.pid file under "/usr/local/greenplum-text-1.x/". If yes, rename the file to ".old". Then attempt either:

gptext-start 

or

gptext-stop