Problem

The following appears in the atlassian-confluence.log file, indicating a connection refused when using Confluence with JDBC direct connection string:

org.postgresql.util.PSQLException: Connection refused. Check that the hostname and port are correct and that the postmaster is accepting TCP/IP connections.

Diagnosis

Environment

• PostgreSQL database

Diagnostic Steps

Here are some quick and handy diagnostic scripts:

ps -f -u postgres 

This should list the PostgreSQL processes in your environment:

sudo lsof -n -u postgres |grep LISTEN or sudo netstat -ltnp | grep postgres

This will show the TCP/IP addresses and ports that your instance of PostgreSQL is listening upon.

Cause

This is a configuration issue with PostgreSQL, not Confluence. The root cause is that the PostgreSQL pga_hba.conf file is not set to TRUST versus IDENT as usually found under:

/var/lib/pgsql/data/pg_hba.conf

and shown herein below:

# TYPE  DATABASE    USER        CIDR-ADDRESS          METHOD
 
# "local" is for Unix domain socket connections only
local   all         all                               ident
 
# IPv4 local connections:
host    all         all         127.0.0.1/32          ident
host    all         all         100.200.300.50/32       ident
 
# IPv6 local connections:
host    all         all         ::1/128               ident

Resolution

• Open the file /var/lib/psql/pg_hba.conf in your favorite text editor of choice with appropriate permissions
• You may have to use sudo to obtain the correct permissions to edit and save the file as needed

• Edit the file, altering the values written as IDENT above to TRUST as shown below

  # TYPE  DATABASE    USER        CIDR-ADDRESS          METHOD
   
  # "local" is for Unix domain socket connections only
  local   all         all                               trust
   
  # IPv4 local connections:
  host    all         all         127.0.0.1/32          trust
  host    all         all         100.200.300.50/32       trust
   
  # IPv6 local connections:
  host    all         all         ::1/128               ident