I have installed PostgreSQL and pgAdminIII on my Ubuntu Karmic box.
I am able to use pgAdminIII successfully (i.e. connect/log on), however when I try to login to the server using the same username/pwd on the command line (using psql), I get the error:
psql: FATAL: Ident authentication failed for user "postgres"
Does anyone now how to resolve this issue?
Did you set the proper settings in pg_hba.conf?
See https://ubuntu.com/server/docs/databases-postgresql how to do it.
The following steps work for a fresh install of postgres 9.1 on Ubuntu 12.04. (Worked for postgres 9.3.9 on Ubuntu 14.04 too.)
By default, postgres creates a user named 'postgres'. We log in as her, and give her a password.
$ sudo -u postgres psql
\password
Enter password: ...
...
Logout of psql by typing \q or ctrl+d. Then we connect as 'postgres'. The -h localhost part is important: it tells the psql client that we wish to connect using a TCP connection (which is configured to use password authentication), and not by a PEER connection (which does not care about the password).
$ psql -U postgres -h localhost
You're getting this error because you're failing client authentication. Based on the error message, you probably have the default postgres configuration, which sets client authentication method to "IDENT" for all PostgreSQL connections.
You should definitely read section 19.1 Client Authentication in the PostgreSQL manual to better understand the authentication settings available (for each record in pg_hba.conf), but here is the relevant snippet to help with the problem you're having (from the version 9.5 manual):
trust
Allow the connection unconditionally. This method allows anyone that can connect to the PostgreSQL database server to login as any PostgreSQL user they wish, without the need for a password or any other authentication. See Section 19.3.1 for details.
reject
Reject the connection unconditionally. This is useful for "filtering out" certain hosts from a group, for example a reject line could block a specific host from connecting, while a later line allows the remaining hosts in a specific network to connect.
md5
Require the client to supply a double-MD5-hashed password for authentication. See Section 19.3.2 for details.
password
Require the client to supply an unencrypted password for authentication. Since the password is sent in clear text over the network, this should not be used on untrusted networks. See Section 19.3.2 for details.
gss
Use GSSAPI to authenticate the user. This is only available for TCP/IP connections. See Section 19.3.3 for details.
sspi
Use SSPI to authenticate the user. This is only available on Windows. See Section 19.3.4 for details.
ident
Obtain the operating system user name of the client by contacting the ident server on the client and check if it matches the requested database user name. Ident authentication can only be used on TCP/IP connections. When specified for local connections, peer authentication will be used instead. See Section 19.3.5 for details.
peer
Obtain the client's operating system user name from the operating system and check if it matches the requested database user name. This is only available for local connections. See Section 19.3.6 for details.
ldap
Authenticate using an LDAP server. See Section 19.3.7 for details.
radius
Authenticate using a RADIUS server. See Section 19.3.8 for details.
cert
Authenticate using SSL client certificates. See Section 19.3.9 for details.
pam
Authenticate using the Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) service provided by the operating system. See Section 19.3.10 for details.
So ... to solve the problem you're experiencing, you could do one of the following:
Change the authentication method(s) defined in your pg_hba.conf
file to trust, md5, or password (depending on your security
and simplicity needs) for the local connection records you have
defined in there.
Update pg_ident.conf to map your operating system users to
PostgreSQL users and grant them the corresponding access privileges,
depending on your needs.
Leave the IDENT settings alone and create users in your database for each operating system user that you want to grant access to. If a user is already authenticated by the OS and logged in, PostgreSQL won't require further authentication and will grant access to that user based on whatever privileges (roles) are assigned to it in the database. This is the default configuration.
Note: The location of pg_hba.conf and pg_ident.conf is OS dependent.
In case none of the above works for you:
I've done quite a few Postgres installations, but was flummoxed today on a RedHat 6.5 system (installing Postgres 9.3). My typical hba.conf configuration that Aron shows above didn't work. It turned out that my system was using IPV6, and ignoring the IPV4 configuration. Adding the line:
host all all ::1/128 password
allowed me to login successfully.
Out of all the answers above nothing worked for me. I had to manually change the users password in the database and it suddenly worked.
psql -U postgres -d postgres -c "alter user produser with password 'produser';"
I used the following settings:
local all all peer
# IPv4 local connections:
host all all 127.0.0.1/32 password
# IPv6 local connections:
host all all ::1/128 password
Connection is successful finally for the following command:
psql -U produser -d dbname -h localhost -W
If you can connect with the username and password in pgAdminIII but you can't connect with psql then those two programs are probably connecting to the database differently.
[If you're connecting to different databases, first try connecting to the same database. See below.]
From PostgreSQL: Documentation: 9.3: psql:
If you omit the host name, psql will connect via a Unix-domain socket to a server on the local host, or via TCP/IP to localhost on machines that don't have Unix-domain sockets.
If you're not running something like psql ... -h host_name ..., and you're running Ubuntu, psql should be connecting via a Unix-domain socket, so PostgreSQL probably isn't configured to allow one of the password authentication methods for the postgres user.
You can test this by running:
sudo -u postgres psql
If the above works, your server is probably configured to use peer authentication for local connections by the postgres user, i.e. asking the OS for your user name to confirm that you're postgres.
The full path of the file will be something like /etc/postgresql/9.3/main/pg_hba.conf. You can view it by, e.g. sudo cat /etc/postgresql/9.3/main/pg_hba.conf | more.
If you're omitting the host name in your psql command, you should be able to connect if you add the following entry to your pg_hba.conf file:
# Connection type Database User IP addresses Method
local all postgres md5
[Commented lines in the pg_hba.conf file start with #.]
If you are including the host name in your psql command, add this entry instead:
# Connection type Database User IP addresses Method
host all postgres 127.0.0.1/32 md5
You need to put the entry before any other entries are matched for your connection via psql. If in doubt about where to put it, just put it before the first un-commented line.
From PostgreSQL: Documentation: 9.3: The pg_hba.conf File [bold emphasis mine]:
The first record with a matching connection type, client address, requested database, and user name is used to perform authentication. There is no "fall-through" or "backup": if one record is chosen and the authentication fails, subsequent records are not considered. If no record matches, access is denied.
Note that records are not matched on authentication method. So, if your pg_hba.conf file contains the following entry:
# Connection type Database User IP addresses Method
local all postgres peer
Then you won't be able to connect via:
psql -u postgres
Unless one of these entries is in your pg_hba.conf file above the former entry:
# Connection type Database User IP addresses Method
local all postgres md5
local all postgres password # Unencrypted!
local all all md5
local all all password # Unencrypted!
For fedora26 and postgres9.6
First, log as user root then enter to psql by the following commands
$ su postgres
then
$ psql
in psql find location of hba_file ==> means pg_hba.conf
postgres=# show hba_file ;
hba_file
--------------------------------------
/etc/postgresql/9.6/main/pg_hba.conf
(1 row)
in file pg_hba.conf change user access to this
host all all 127.0.0.1/32 md5
The problem is still your pg_hba.conf file. This line: You can found this file in /etc/postgres/varion/main
local all postgres peer
Should be
local all postgres md5
These are brief descriptions of both options according to the official PostgreSQL docs on authentication methods.
Peer authentication
The peer authentication method works by obtaining the client's operating system user name from the kernel and using it as the allowed database user name (with optional user name mapping). This method is only supported on local connections.
Password authentication
The password-based authentication methods are md5 and password. These methods operate similarly except for the way that the password is sent across the connection, namely MD5-hashed and clear-text respectively.
If you are at all concerned about password "sniffing" attacks then md5 is preferred. Plain password should always be avoided if possible. However, md5 cannot be used with the db_user_namespace feature. If the connection is protected by SSL encryption then password can be used safely (though SSL certificate authentication might be a better choice if one is depending on using SSL).
After altering this file, don't forget to restart your PostgreSQL server. If you're on Linux, that would be sudo service postgresql restart.
my solution on PostgreSQL 9.3 on Mac OSX in bash shell was to use sudo to go into the data folder, and then append the necessary lines to the pg_hba.conf file to allow for all users to be trusted and be able to log in. This is what I did:
# in bash_profile edit PGDATA environmental variable
open ~/.bash_profile
# append this line to bash_profile
export PGDATA="/Library/PostgreSQL/9.3/data"
# reload bash_profile
source ~/.bash_profile
# open pg_hba.conf in vim
sudo vi /Library/PostgreSQL/9.3/data/pg_hba.conf
# append these two lines to the end of the pg_hba.conf file
local all all trust
host all all 127.0.0.1/32 trust
# can now login as user in bash
psql -d <db_name> -U <user_name> -W
I've spent more time solving this error that I care to admit.
The order of authentication configuration in pg_hba.conf is relevant in your case I think. The default configuration file includes several lines in a vanilla install. These defaults can match the conditions of your authentication attempts resulting in a failure to authenticate. It fails regardless of additional configuration added at the end of the .conf file.
To check which line of configuration is use make sure to look at the default log file for messages. You might see something like this
LOG: could not connect to Ident server at address "127.0.0.1", port 113: Connection refused
FATAL: Ident authentication failed for user "acme"
DETAIL: Connection matched pg_hba.conf line 82: "host all all 127.0.0.1/32 ident"
It turns out this default line is causing the rejection.
host all all 127.0.0.1/32 ident
try commenting it out.
One hack around this is to edit pg_hba.conf
sudo vi /etc/postgresql/9.3/main/pg_hba.conf
To temporarily
# Database administrative login by Unix domain socket
local all postgres trust
At this point you are done. For security, then go and
sudo -u postgres psql template1
ALTER USER postgres with encrypted password 'your_password';
then go back and set pg_hba.conf back to
# Database administrative login by Unix domain socket
local all postgres md5
I had the same issuse after following this: PostgreSQL setup for Rails development in Ubuntu 12.04
I tried the other answers but all I had to do was in: "config/database.yml"
development:
adapter: postgresql
encoding: unicode
database: (appname)_development
pool: 5
username: (username you granted appname database priviledges to)
password:
For Windows if you dont want to edit pb_gba.conf ie leave the method to MD5(default), create a new user, by running this query in Query tool in PGadmin
CREATE USER admin WITH PASSWORD 'secret'
then in cmd
psql "dbname=Main_db host=127.0.0.1 user=admin password=secret port=5432
where dbname is your db in postgresql
This worked for me : http://tecadmin.net/fatal-ident-authentication-failed-for-user-postgres/#
local all postgres trust
local all myapp_usr trust
# IPv4 local connections:
host all all 127.0.0.1/32 trust
# IPv6 local connections:
#host all all ::1/128 trust
