Dimension can't connec to external database

wciibbwciibb
in Firebox - Dimension, Logging and Reporting

Hello,

I'm about to setup a new Dimension for logging. I used to use the appliance's internal database, but i'm going to change for an external one.

So I setup up a new Debian13/PostgreSQL14 system which is up and running. Access tested with pgadmin4 successfully.

I setup a new appliance from the ovf-template version 2.3 and am now trying to configure database access with the setup wizard, which constantly gives me the message:

"Connection failed. Make sure the Database User credentials are correct. The user you specify must have permission to create a new database or modify the current database."

I verified the credentials of the user i'm using with pgadmin. I precreated a database "dimension" for it, I even made the user a postgresql superadmin, but nothing seems to work. I tested several client authentication methods like "scram-sha-256","password" and "md5" within the pg_hba.conf (scram works fine with the pgadmin!) but it wouldn't let me make a successfull connection. I also tried a more simple password without any fishy/funny characters.

Does anyone have an idea what might be the reason for this? Does anyone successfully got this connection to be successfully established?

best regards
Heiko

Comments

  • james.carsonjames.carson Moderator, WatchGuard Representative

    Hi @wciibb
    Do you see any errors in your database server from the failed login attempts? The logs there may be able to tell you more information about what's wrong.

    The Dimension server will only be able to report that authentication didn't work when logging into an external database.

    -James Carson
    WatchGuard Customer Support

  • wciibbwciibb

    Hi James, thx for your response.

    In the postgres log i can only see an connection attempt, but nothing else. Interestingly it says "[unknown]@[unknown]", as i'm not a postgres pro, it seems to me that it can't tell which username had been used to access which database.

    2026-03-25 16:06:51.989 CET [13507] [unknown]@[unknown] LOG:  00000: connection received: host=172.29.46.1 port=51108
2026-03-25 16:06:51.989 CET [13507] [unknown]@[unknown] LOCATION:  BackendInitialize, postmaster.c:4426
2026-03-25 16:06:51.997 CET [13508] [unknown]@[unknown] LOG:  00000: connection received: host=172.29.46.1 port=51120
2026-03-25 16:06:51.997 CET [13508] [unknown]@[unknown] LOCATION:  BackendInitialize, postmaster.c:4426
2026-03-25 16:06:52.005 CET [13509] [unknown]@[unknown] LOG:  00000: connection received: host=172.29.46.1 port=51136
2026-03-25 16:06:52.005 CET [13509] [unknown]@[unknown] LOCATION:  BackendInitialize, postmaster.c:4426
2026-03-25 16:06:52.013 CET [13510] [unknown]@[unknown] LOG:  00000: connection received: host=172.29.46.1 port=51138
2026-03-25 16:06:52.013 CET [13510] [unknown]@[unknown] LOCATION:  BackendInitialize, postmaster.c:4426
2026-03-25 16:06:53.633 CET [13511] DEBUG:  00000: autovacuum: processing database "postgres"
2026-03-25 16:06:53.633 CET [13511] LOCATION:  AutoVacWorkerMain, autovacuum.c:1712

    I thought about if it would help to select "internal" in the setup wizard first and then try to reconfigure it afterwards in the database settings to switch from the internal database to the external. Perhaps this uses other routines which might succeed!?

  • wciibbwciibb

    So, i now setup with the internal database and tried to change it afterwards to use the external one. But with now progress do far.

    I created a new user with administrative rights on the postgresql and logged into via pgadmin successful:

    2026-03-26 10:21:03.438 CET [18478] [unknown]@[unknown] LOG:  00000: connection received: host=xxx.yyyy.zzzz.com port=49296
2026-03-26 10:21:03.438 CET [18478] [unknown]@[unknown] LOCATION:  BackendInitialize, postmaster.c:4426
2026-03-26 10:21:03.467 CET [18478] wglog@postgres LOG:  00000: connection authenticated: identity="wglog" method=scram-sha-256 (/etc/postgresql/14/main/pg_hba.conf:103)
2026-03-26 10:21:03.467 CET [18478] wglog@postgres LOCATION:  set_authn_id, auth.c:388
2026-03-26 10:21:03.467 CET [18478] wglog@postgres LOG:  00000: **connection authorized: user=wglog** database=postgres application_name=pgAdmin 4 - DB:postgres SSL enabled (protocol=TLSv1.3, cipher=TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384, bits=256)
2026-03-26 10:21:03.467 CET [18478] wglog@postgres LOCATION:  PerformAuthentication, postinit.c:292

    Then I tried to reconfigure the database in the database configuration section of the dimension using the same credentials:

    ```

    2026-03-26 10:24:28.642 CET [18493] [unknown]@[unknown] LOG: 00000: connection received: host=172.29.46.1 port=50966

    2026-03-26 10:24:28.642 CET [18493] [unknown]@[unknown] LOCATION: BackendInitialize, postmaster.c:4426

    ```

    No luck untli now.

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