PostgreSQL causing slow shutdowns with OS X Server in Mavericks

Question

I've found that on OS X Server in Mavericks, the PostgreSQL processes are causing shutdown delays. During a verbose shutdown, I get the following (shortened) output:

com.apple.launchd                      System: Still alive with 1/7 (normal/anonymous) children.
*.anonymous.pg_receivexlog             PID is still valid
*.anonymous.postgres_real              PID is still valid
*.anonymous.postgres_real              PID is still valid
*.anonymous.Python                     PID is still valid
*.anonymous.pg_receivexlog             PID is still valid
*.anonymous.postgres_real              PID is still valid
com.apple.DeviceManagement.postgres    PID is still valid

The (*) is replaced by a random string, different for each item.

I have no experience with PostgreSQL and I don't use any of the database-related OS X Server components (mainly Xcode and VPN) so I have no idea where to start.

Answer 1

The com.apple.DeviceManagement.postgres line makes me think that this could be related to Profile Manager services. Does it show Profile Manager running in Server.app? If you're not utilizing this service, disabling it may help to stop the shutdown delays.

Alternately, if you need to keep these services running, it may be worth looking at some log files somewhere (/var/log/system.log or /var/log/devicemgr/*?) to see if the profile manager service (or any others) are complaining.

Answer 2

Any number of services on OS X Server use Postgres. On my server, for example, the Wiki uses it.

While the server is still running try ps ax | grep postgres | less and you will probably see a number of processes, the first ones will almost certainly be some scripts that start Postgres and these should tell you where the logs are located - it will say something like -c log_directory=/Library/Server/Wiki/Logs You might also want to look at /Applications/Server.app/Contents/ServerRoot/usr/bin/xpostgres which is the Python script that should be used to start Postgres by server services.

This will start you down the road to discovering your problem.