vRealize Automation Replica Node /storage/db/ resetting permissions to something other than 755

Products

• VCF Operations/Automation (formerly VMware Aria Suite)

Issue/Introduction

• postgres and cluster join commands fail with postgres related permission errors similar to:
  could not access directory "/var/log/vmware/vpostgres/current/pgdata": permission denied
• Checking the permissions of /storage/db directory it is not set to the expected 755
• Using command find /etc/xenon/* -type l which will show any directories which contain symlinks it is found there are symlinks rpesent pointing to 'storage/db' directory

Environment

vRealize Automation 7.x

Cause

The issue occurrs when symlinks have been created under the xenon folder pointing to '/storage/db'. Xenon script runs every 5 minutes on master node and makes permission changes on the replica filesystem , if a symlink exists for 'storage/db' in xenon folder then it will execute permission change there also which is not desirable.

Resolution

To resolve the issue:

1. As a best practise precaution snapshot all vRealize Automation appliance nodes.

2. SSH to each vRA appliance and use below command to identify any xenon directories contianing symlinks:

find /etc/xenon/* -type l

3. Change into the relevant xenon directories returned by above command and remove all the db symlinks pointing to 'storage/db' 

rm <symlink name>

in previous occurances the symlinks have been named db.

4. Then correct permissions on 'storage/db' one final time on replica nodes:

chmod 755 /storage/db

5. Confirm after 10-15 minutes to ensure permissions are still correct on /storage/db directory

ls -l /storage/