gpconfig failed: GUC Validation Failed: xxxxxx cannot be changed under normal condition

Products

• VMware Tanzu Greenplum

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

When attempting to check the value of the parameter using gpconfig, the gpconfig fails with an error similar as below:

[gpadmin@instance-2 ~]$ gpconfig -c gp_recursive_cte_prototype -v on 
20171002:02:00:31:002355 gpconfig:instance-2:gpadmin-[CRITICAL]:-GUC Valid 
ation Failed: gp_recursive_cte_prototype cannot be changed under normal co 
nditions. Please refer to gpconfig documentation. 
GUC Validation Failed: gp_recursive_cte_prototype cannot be changed under 
normal conditions. Please refer to gpconfig documentation. 

[gpadmin@instance-2 ~]$ gpconfig -c gp_recursive_cte_prototype -v off 
20171002:02:00:35:002372 gpconfig:instance-2:gpadmin-[CRITICAL]:-GUC Valid 
ation Failed: gp_recursive_cte_prototype cannot be changed under normal co 
nditions. Please refer to gpconfig documentation. 
GUC Validation Failed: gp_recursive_cte_prototype cannot be changed under 
normal conditions. Please refer to gpconfig documentation.

Environment

Cause

From the 4.3.13.0 release, when you try to change a protected Greenplum Database server configuration parameter with the gpconfig utility without the --skip validation option, the utility returns a message stating that the parameter is restricted and should not be changed under normal conditions. In previous releases, the message indicated that parameter was not valid.

 

Resolution

For above example, we can use below command to change the GUC:

gpconfig -c optimizer_force_multistage_agg -v false --skipvalidation

Then, restart the cluster as the GUC itself needs a restart. It would show the changed value after the DB restart.