gpconfig Fails with "Failed to retrieve GUC information"

Products

• VMware Tanzu Greenplum

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

When attempting to check the value of the parameter using gpconfig, the gpconfig fails with

[gpadmin@mdw_test ~]$ gpconfig -s gp_backup_directIO
20140131:17:39:40:013302 gpconfig:mdw:gpadmin-[ERROR]:-Failed to retrieve GUC information: error 'ERROR:  function gp_toolkit.gp_param_setting(unknown) does not exist
LINE 1: select * from gp_toolkit.gp_param_setting('gp_backup_directI...
                      ^
HINT:  No function matches the given name and argument types. You may need to add explicit type casts.
' in 'select * from gp_toolkit.gp_param_setting('gp_backup_directIO')'

Environment

Cause

gpconfig uses internally the gp_toolkit schema to get the value of the parameter, so if the gptoolkit for some reason is not installed or if the user doesn't have the permission the above error message might be seen. gp_toolkit might be installed but missing from one of the databases which will also cause the error.

 

Resolution

Ensure/ check if the gptoolkit schema has been installed using the below query.

select * from pg_namespace;

if you are not able to find the schema gp_toolkit , please run the file "gptoolkit.sql" found at $GPHOME/share/postgresql. Repeat above steps for all databases if you still getting an error. gp_toolkit will not install if there is already some leftovers from previous installations or corrupted gptoolkit entries. In that situation please remove all gp_toolkit objects and try again.