barman & Dockerized PostgreSQL: check timeout: FAILED (barman check command timed out)

Question

I am trying to configure barman to backup a PostgreSQL 11 database running inside a Docker container. barman v2.10 is installed directly in the Ubuntu 18.04.3 host machine.

barman check pgsql gives the error:

check timeout: FAILED (barman check command timed out)

Output of barman check pgsql

$ time barman check pgsql
Server pgsql:
    check timeout: FAILED (barman check command timed out)

real    0m36.978s
user    0m0.336s
sys 0m0.025s

However, there's no problem instantly connecting to the same database using the same credentials with psql:

Output of psql

$ psql -h 172.xxx.xxx.xxx -p 5432 -U postgres --dbname=app_development
Password for user postgres: 
psql (11.7 (Ubuntu 11.7-1.pgdg18.04+1), server 11.6)
Type "help" for help.

app_development=# 

Question: What might be the problem here with barman?

---

/etc/barman.d/pgsql.conf

[pgsql]
description =  "PostgreSQL server"
conninfo = host=172.xxx.xxx.xxx port=5432 user=postgres password=mypassword dbname=app_development
ssh_command = ssh -p 2222 [email protected]
backup_method = rsync
parallel_jobs = 1
reuse_backup = link
archiver = on

/etc/barman.conf

[barman]
barman_home = /var/lib/barman/pg
barman_user = barman

backup_options = exclusive_backup
compression = gzip
network_compression = true
bandwidth_limit = 0
immediate_checkpoint = true
last_backup_maximum_age = 2 DAYS
retention_policy = RECOVERY WINDOW OF 3 MONTHS
minimum_redundancy = 2
log_file = /var/log/barman/barman.log
log_level = DEBUG

/var/log/barman/barman.log

2020-02-19 02:05:58,241 [21079] barman.config DEBUG: Including configuration file: pgsql.conf
2020-02-19 02:05:58,242 [21079] barman.cli DEBUG: Initialised Barman version 2.10 (config: /etc/barman.conf, args: {'color': 'auto', 'quiet': False, 'debug': False, 'format': 'console', 'server_name': ['pgsql'], 'nagios': False, 'command': 'check'})
2020-02-19 02:05:58,249 [21079] barman.server DEBUG: Retention policy for server pgsql: RECOVERY WINDOW OF 3 MONTHS
2020-02-19 02:05:58,249 [21079] barman.server DEBUG: WAL retention policy for server pgsql: MAIN
2020-02-19 02:05:58,250 [21079] barman.server DEBUG: Starting check: 'WAL archive'
2020-02-19 02:05:58,250 [21079] barman.server DEBUG: Starting check: 'empty incoming directory'
2020-02-19 02:05:58,250 [21079] barman.server DEBUG: Starting check: 'empty streaming directory'
2020-02-19 02:05:58,250 [21079] barman.server DEBUG: Starting check: 'PostgreSQL'
2020-02-19 02:06:01,606 [21088] barman.config DEBUG: Including configuration file: pgsql.conf
2020-02-19 02:06:01,607 [21088] barman.cli DEBUG: Initialised Barman version 2.10 (config: /etc/barman.conf, args: {'color': 'auto', 'quiet': True, 'debug': False, 'format': 'console', 'keep_descriptors': False, 'command': 'cron'})
2020-02-19 02:06:01,613 [21088] barman.server DEBUG: Retention policy for server pgsql: RECOVERY WINDOW OF 3 MONTHS
2020-02-19 02:06:01,613 [21088] barman.server DEBUG: WAL retention policy for server pgsql: MAIN
2020-02-19 02:06:01,613 [21088] barman.command_wrappers DEBUG: BarmanSubProcess: ['/usr/bin/python3', '/usr/bin/barman', '-c', '/etc/barman.conf', '-q', 'archive-wal', 'pgsql']
2020-02-19 02:06:01,615 [21088] barman.command_wrappers DEBUG: BarmanSubProcess: subprocess started. pid: 21089
2020-02-19 02:06:01,915 [21089] barman.config DEBUG: Including configuration file: pgsql.conf
2020-02-19 02:06:01,916 [21089] barman.cli DEBUG: Initialised Barman version 2.10 (config: /etc/barman.conf, args: {'color': 'auto', 'quiet': True, 'debug': False, 'format': 'console', 'config': '/etc/barman.conf', 'server_name': 'pgsql', 'command': 'archive_wal'})
2020-02-19 02:06:01,922 [21089] barman.server DEBUG: Retention policy for server pgsql: RECOVERY WINDOW OF 3 MONTHS
2020-02-19 02:06:01,922 [21089] barman.server DEBUG: WAL retention policy for server pgsql: MAIN
2020-02-19 02:06:01,939 [21089] barman.server DEBUG: Starting archive-wal for server pgsql
2020-02-19 02:06:01,939 [21089] barman.wal_archiver INFO: No xlog segments found from file archival for pgsql.
2020-02-19 02:06:35,308 [21079] barman.server DEBUG: Check command timed out executing 'PostgreSQL' check
2020-02-19 02:06:35,309 [21079] barman.server ERROR: Check 'check timeout' failed for server 'pgsql'

Answer 1

Great,

Increase the check timeout.

in /etc/barman.conf

check_timeout = 60

Answer 2

Well. try following barman command instead of fixed timeout:

barman cron
barman switch-wal <server-name>

I face the same issue when add a new server in to barman backup config. It alwsy happened. After check stackoverlog and barman docker, I noticed that if the datbase base is not very busy, there will no wal(xlog)generated during the new server configuration period. If the database is busy and has wal or xlog generated then this issue will not show. To solve it, you can let barman ask postgresql db server switch wal(xlog) manually. The command is switch-wal. Also, the barman cron need run in backup by crond every minutes.

Hope above experience could help you.

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