Changing data directory for postgres on CentOS I've got a postgres 9.2.18 installation on CentOS which used the standard installation path. Now I realised that on this particular partition, there isn't sufficient hard-disk space for some bigger queries.

The default data_directory is on:

/var/lib/pgsql/data


$ df -h /var/lib/pgsql
Filesystem               Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/centos-root   50G   39G   12G  77% /


So, I'd like to move the data directory to my home repository (it's a test-DB only for myself)

$ df -h /home/mlu
Filesystem               Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/centos-home  395G  171G  224G  44% /home


For doing so, I've tried:

1) Copying postgres data using rsync:    
sudo rsync -av /var/lib/pgsql /home/mlu/postgres-data

2) Addressing the new path within postgresql.conf:
sudo -u postgres nano /var/lib/pgsql/data/postgresql.conf
  data_directory = '/home/mlu/postgres-data/pgsql/'

3) starting postgres:
sudo systemctl start postgresql


Starting postgres service doesn't works now, because of the new data_directory path within the postgresql.conf. (It works, if I comment out the directory path again though)

EDIT: Ok, I've figured out, that it's a permission conflict. But shouldn't rsync just have copied the correct permission as well?

sudo service postgresql.service status
Redirecting to /bin/systemctl status  postgresql.service.service
● postgresql.service - PostgreSQL database server
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/postgresql.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Tue 2018-02-13 18:34:54 CET; 21s ago
  Process: 27416 ExecStop=/usr/bin/pg_ctl stop -D ${PGDATA} -s -m fast (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
  Process: 27484 ExecStart=/usr/bin/pg_ctl start -D ${PGDATA} -s -o -p ${PGPORT} -w -t 300 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
  Process: 27473 ExecStartPre=/usr/bin/postgresql-check-db-dir ${PGDATA} (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 Main PID: 27290 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)

Feb 13 18:34:53 axonlu-ws026.mappuls.int systemd[1]: Starting PostgreSQL database server...
Feb 13 18:34:53 axonlu-ws026.mappuls.int pg_ctl[27484]: FATAL:  could not read permissions of directory "/home/mlu/postgres-data/pgsql": Permission denied
Feb 13 18:34:54 axonlu-ws026.mappuls.int pg_ctl[27484]: pg_ctl: could not start server
Feb 13 18:34:54 axonlu-ws026.mappuls.int pg_ctl[27484]: Examine the log output.
Feb 13 18:34:54 axonlu-ws026.mappuls.int systemd[1]: postgresql.service: control process exited, code=exited status=1
Feb 13 18:34:54 axonlu-ws026.mappuls.int systemd[1]: Failed to start PostgreSQL database server.
Feb 13 18:34:54 axonlu-ws026.mappuls.int systemd[1]: Unit postgresql.service entered failed state.
Feb 13 18:34:54 axonlu-ws026.mappuls.int systemd[1]: postgresql.service failed.


Not sure why I still get a permission denied, since postgres should have all necessary rights as owner of the folder:

$ ls -l
total 4
drwxrwxrwx. 6 postgres postgres 4096 Aug  3  2017 pgsq
SELinux blocking access? Check your /var/log/audit/audit.log.

It might be necessary to fix the SELinux context for the new dir:

semanage fcontext --add --equal /var/lib/pgsql /home/mlu/postgres-data/pgsql
restorecon -rv /home/mlu/postgres-data/pgsql/