Unable to start ambari-server - password authentication failed for user "ambari"

[#1]

Hello,

I work on a cluster with HDP 2.4.

I'm not able to start ambari. I use this command:

[ambari@ current]$ service ambari-server restart

And I get this error:

ERROR: Exiting with exit code -1.
REASON: Ambari Server java process died with exitcode 1. Check /var/log/ambari-server/ambari-server.out for more information

In the ambari-server.out and ambari-server.log files i get the same error:

15 Sep 2016 10:42:28,893 ERROR [main] DBAccessorImpl:102 - Error while creating database accessor 
org.postgresql.util.PSQLException: FATAL: password authentication failed for user "ambari"

So, i guess the ambari-server start command try to connect to the PostgreSQL ambari database, but can't access it because he don't use the correct password.

How can i know which password is used by this command ? What can I do to solve this issue and restart ambari?

Thanks!

Edit: The error appeared after i change the password of the user "ambari" on the PostgreSQL database.

[#2]

@xli

If you are using sandbox2.4 or higher then you can reset password as :

1. Start your sandbox, ssh using a terminal or the web browser link:
2. Run the following commands:
3. ambari-admin-password-reset

In general you can run the following query in yoru ambari DB to reset the password of ambari to default "admin/admin"

1. Log on to ambari server host shell

2. Run 'psql -U ambari-server ambari' (OR) 'psql -U ambari ambari'

3. Enter password 'bigdata'

4. In psql query as following:

   update ambari.users set user_password='538916f8943ec225d97a9a86a2c6ec0818c1cd400e09e03b660fdaaec4af29ddbb6f2b1033b81b00' where user_name='admin' 

5. Quit psql

6. Run 'ambari-server restart'

[#3]

I'm not using the sandbox. I'm working on a cluster with HDP 2.4.

This procedure updates the password for the "admin" user of Ambari. But the error seems to concern the "ambari" user.

[#4]

hi @jss & @xli, tried the step. and im getting the below error. i am missing any configuration?

[#5 · Accepted solution]

I found the issue and how to solve it. here is my explaination:

ambari-server starts using "ambari" user and the password found in the configuration file /etc/ambari-server/conf/password.dat

By default, the password is "bigdata".

As I updated, via psql, the PostgreSQL ambari password, the password in the configration file was incorrect.

Si i changed the content of the configuration file with the value of my new password and the server restarted well.

[#6]

Hi @xli, please share how you change the content of the configuration file? any specify command to use?