Backup of VCSA vPostgres database fails due to .pgpass file missing/corrupt on vCenter Appliance

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

• Backup of vCenter Server Appliance vPostgres database is not successful
• Backup file is created with 0 kb of data
• vCenter - /var/log/vmware/applmgmt/backup.logs are not updated

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 6.x

Cause

This occurs when the .pgpass file is missing or is corrupted.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, re-created the .pgpass file.

1. Copy the format of .pgpass from a working vCenter
2. Ensure permissions match below after copying
   
   root@vcenter [ ~ ]# ls -la
~
-rw-------  1 root root   302 Jul 12  2018 .pgpass
~

   Below is an example of the contents of the .pgpass file
   
   localhost:5432:replication:replicator:+?2%fBGy4=l(S9$J
127.0.0.1:5432:replication:replicator:+?2%fBGy4=l(S9$J
localhost:5432:postgres:postgres:Nf4hK*?u9ZV(CO)e
127.0.0.1:5432:postgres:postgres:Nf4hK*?u9ZV(CO)e
localhost:5432:VCDB:postgres:Nf4hK*?u9ZV(CO)e
127.0.0.1:5432:VCDB:postgres:Nf4hK*?u9ZV(CO)e
   
   
3. Replace the postgres password from above template and replace it with postgres password of vCenter.
   
   Note: Retrieve the postgres password from the following file: /etc/vmware/service-state/vpxd/embedded_db.cfg