# How to connect PMM to the quickstart postgres database

**URL:** <https://forums.percona.com/t/how-to-connect-pmm-to-the-quickstart-postgres-database/40249>\
**Category:** PostgreSQL\
**Tags:** pmm\
**Created:** [February 19, 2026, 12:01am UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/how-to-connect-pmm-to-the-quickstart-postgres-database/40249 "2026-02-19T00:01:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 10\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Glenn\_Glazer](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forums.percona.com/glenn_glazer/32/23250_2.png) [@Glenn\_Glazer](https://forums.percona.com/u/Glenn_Glazer)\
**Post date:** [February 19, 2026, 12:01am UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/how-to-connect-pmm-to-the-quickstart-postgres-database/40249/1 "2026-02-19T00:01:54Z")

</div>

I created a database using the kubernetes quickstart here: [With kubectl - Percona Operator for PostgreSQL](https://docs.percona.com/percona-operator-for-postgresql/latest/kubectl.html)

I can connect to it using:  
`kubectl run -i --rm --tty pg-client --image=perconalab/percona-distribution-postgresql:16 --restart=Never – psql $PGBOUNCER_URI`

where the PGBOUNCER\_URI is described in the following section.

So far, so good.

I then create a PMM instance using the instructions here: [5 Monitor the database with PMM - Percona Operator for PostgreSQL](https://docs.percona.com/percona-operator-for-postgresql/latest/monitoring-tutorial.html) and I am able to connect with my browser and log in.

Also, so far, so good.

However, when I log in, the only database it seems to be monitoring is pmm-server-postgresql which I think belongs to the monitor itself, not the cluster1 database created in the first steps of the quickstart.

I’ve tried adding the cluster1 as a service with the hostname cluster1-pgbouncer.percona-postgres-operator.svc , however it insists on TLS certificates (can’t leave it blank and rely on defaults) and I have no idea where to get those from.

Also, the cluster1 user created in the quickstart does not have CREATEROLE privileges, so while I’m supposed to create a pmm user from what I read, I can’t do that either.

Suggestions and recommendations welcome.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![eleonora.zinchenko](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forums.percona.com/eleonora.zinchenko/32/19132_2.png) [@eleonora.zinchenko](https://forums.percona.com/u/eleonora.zinchenko)\
**Post date:** [February 19, 2026, 8:55am UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/how-to-connect-pmm-to-the-quickstart-postgres-database/40249/2 "2026-02-19T08:55:10Z")

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Hi,

There is no need to manually add cluster to pmm server or create a user in pg if it is enabled in the cr. Could you check & share operator logs to see if there are any related errors in it? pls also check pmm-client container logs for any errors.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Glenn\_Glazer](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forums.percona.com/glenn_glazer/32/23250_2.png) [@Glenn\_Glazer](https://forums.percona.com/u/Glenn_Glazer)\
**Post date:** [February 19, 2026, 4:23pm UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/how-to-connect-pmm-to-the-quickstart-postgres-database/40249/3 "2026-02-19T16:23:31Z")

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Hi, Eleanora, thanks for your reply.

The cr.yaml is the same one as given on your website for deploying the client with enabled changed to true.

For `kubectl -n percona-postgres-operator logs deploy/percona-postgresql-operator` , all of the log messages are at INFO, no errors. There is something about the token missing.

I’ve put the entire operator log in this gist: [gist:d62ab156a140c67dbfa53ec40accb080 · GitHub](https://gist.github.com/gglazer-sightmachine/d62ab156a140c67dbfa53ec40accb080) .

`% kubectl get pods -n percona-postgres-operator`  
`NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE`  
`cluster1-backup-k5zc-pv4pc 0/1 Completed 0 44h`  
`cluster1-instance1-4wpg-0 0/4 Init:ImagePullBackOff 0 43h`  
`cluster1-instance1-kgl8-0 4/4 Running 0 44h`  
`cluster1-instance1-ks4w-0 4/4 Running 0 44h`  
`cluster1-pgbouncer-775cd78f4d-7g5lt 2/2 Running 0 19h`  
`cluster1-pgbouncer-775cd78f4d-dkmlm 2/2 Running 0 43h`  
`cluster1-pgbouncer-775cd78f4d-sgp6h 2/2 Running 0 43h`  
`cluster1-repo-host-0 2/2 Running 0 19h`  
`percona-postgresql-operator-6b887b756d-g442q 1/1 Running 1 (7h51m ago) 44h`

For all of those, following the instructions on the Monitor the database with PMM page, I get “error: container pmm-client is not valid for pod” when I ask for the logs with `-c pmm-client`.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Glenn\_Glazer](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forums.percona.com/glenn_glazer/32/23250_2.png) [@Glenn\_Glazer](https://forums.percona.com/u/Glenn_Glazer)\
**Post date:** [February 19, 2026, 4:34pm UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/how-to-connect-pmm-to-the-quickstart-postgres-database/40249/4 "2026-02-19T16:34:32Z")

</div>

There is also this pod, somehow under the default namespace, but same error:

```auto
% kubectl get pods -n default
NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE
node-debugger-aks-nodes01-24440178-vmss000001-f6bpb 0/1 Completed 0 17h
pmm-0 1/1 Running 0 43h

% kubectl logs -n default pmm-0 -c pmm-client
error: container pmm-client is not valid for pod pmm-0

```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Glenn\_Glazer](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forums.percona.com/glenn_glazer/32/23250_2.png) [@Glenn\_Glazer](https://forums.percona.com/u/Glenn_Glazer)\
**Post date:** [February 19, 2026, 6:21pm UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/how-to-connect-pmm-to-the-quickstart-postgres-database/40249/5 "2026-02-19T18:21:02Z")

</div>

As a further update, I created a token, updated the pmm client secrets using kubectl apply and then re-applied the cr to force a restart.

I even tried deleting the pods, but now they won’t come up:

```auto
% kubectl get pods -n percona-postgres-operator
NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE
cluster1-backup-k5zc-pv4pc 0/1 Completed 0 46h
cluster1-instance1-4wpg-0 0/5 Init:ImagePullBackOff 0 2m12s
cluster1-instance1-kgl8-0 0/5 Init:ErrImagePull 0 2m10s
cluster1-instance1-ks4w-0 0/5 Init:ImagePullBackOff 0 2m11s

% kubectl -n percona-postgres-operator logs cluster1-instance1-4wpg-0
Error from server (BadRequest): container “database” in pod “cluster1-instance1-4wpg-0” is waiting to start: PodInitializing

```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![eleonora.zinchenko](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forums.percona.com/eleonora.zinchenko/32/19132_2.png) [@eleonora.zinchenko](https://forums.percona.com/u/eleonora.zinchenko)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2026, 4:19pm UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/how-to-connect-pmm-to-the-quickstart-postgres-database/40249/6 "2026-02-20T16:19:11Z")

</div>

Hi,

To enable pmm client (make it run), the pmm should be enabled in cr and the token should be present in the secret. Until secret data is present - the pmm-client containers will not be created in pods and thus there will not be any stats in PMM server. As there was no token in secret - pmm-client containers were not created and the token error was in log.

In general there is no need to restart the cluster after the token is added - it should be restarted by operator itself (though may take some time to get triggered).

Although it looks strange that after reapplying the cr you’ve got `ErrImagePull` . If you still have this cluster - could you provide describe of one of the pods with `ErrImagePull` to check it?

Note: depending on PMM version you are running the TOKEN or KEY should be used ([5 Monitor the database with PMM - Percona Operator for PostgreSQL](https://docs.percona.com/percona-operator-for-postgresql/latest/monitoring-tutorial.html#create-a-secret))

> There is also this pod, somehow under the default namespace, but same error:

This seems to be PMM server POD.

Please also recheck that `spec.pmm.serverHost` contains the host of the PMM server.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Glenn\_Glazer](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forums.percona.com/glenn_glazer/32/23250_2.png) [@Glenn\_Glazer](https://forums.percona.com/u/Glenn_Glazer)\
**Post date:** [February 23, 2026, 2:43pm UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/how-to-connect-pmm-to-the-quickstart-postgres-database/40249/7 "2026-02-23T14:43:01Z")

</div>

Hi,

Here’s the describe. I’m off to commute to work, will be online again in a couple of hours.

> <https://gist.github.com/gglazer-sightmachine/1cc36d5969b7c8f76b7ffecc8de56c90>

I specified a token, I believe I am using PMM 3.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Glenn\_Glazer](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forums.percona.com/glenn_glazer/32/23250_2.png) [@Glenn\_Glazer](https://forums.percona.com/u/Glenn_Glazer)\
**Post date:** [February 24, 2026, 6:36pm UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/how-to-connect-pmm-to-the-quickstart-postgres-database/40249/8 "2026-02-24T18:36:54Z")

</div>

So, we solved the pod restarting problem. Somehow, in the bundle.yaml,

`image: docker.io/percona/percona-postgresql-operator:2.8.2` got set to 2.9 and since there is no 2.9, the docker image pull failed.

But now they are crash looping.

% kubectl get po -n 2percona  
NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE  
cluster1-backup-n7m4-pc7fx 0/1 Completed 0 22h  
cluster1-instance1-2lmb-0 4/5 CrashLoopBackOff 349 (4m59s ago) 22h  
cluster1-instance1-8xbb-0 4/5 CrashLoopBackOff 351 (57s ago) 22h  
cluster1-instance1-mvj8-0 4/5 CrashLoopBackOff 349 (3m47s ago) 22h  
cluster1-pgbouncer-fd5d99bcc-6g8f7 2/2 Running 0 22h  
cluster1-pgbouncer-fd5d99bcc-pfclc 2/2 Running 0 22h  
cluster1-pgbouncer-fd5d99bcc-shq5g 2/2 Running 0 22h  
cluster1-repo-host-0 2/2 Running 0 22h  
percona-postgresql-operator-6b887b756d-lzqn4 1/1 Running 0 24h

I see the following containers:  
`% kubectl describe po -n 2percona cluster1-instance1-8xbb-0| fgrep -B1 containerd | fgrep -v containerd | sort`  
`database-init:`  
`database:`  
`nss-wrapper-init:`  
`pgbackrest-config:`  
`pgbackrest:`  
`pmm-client:`  
`postgres-startup:`  
`replication-cert-copy:`

On the leader, 2lmb, I see (after removing the leader messages) in the database log:  
`2026-02-24 00:30:21,734 ERROR: ObjectCache.run ProtocolError(“Connection broken: ConnectionResetError(104, ‘Connection reset by peer’)”, ConnectionResetError(104, ‘Connection reset by peer’))`  
`2026-02-24 05:03:34,674 ERROR: ObjectCache.run ProtocolError(“Connection broken: InvalidChunkLength(got length b’', 0 bytes read)”, InvalidChunkLength(got length b’‘, 0 bytes read))`  
`2026-02-24 05:04:11,992 ERROR: ObjectCache.run ProtocolError("Connection broken: InvalidChunkLength(got length b’‘, 0 bytes read)", InvalidChunkLength(got length b’', 0 bytes read))`

In the replication-cert-copy log, I see:  
`error: container replicationh-cert-copy is not valid for pod cluster1-instance1-2lmb-0`

In the pmm-agent log, I see:  
`Checking local pmm-agent status…`  
`pmm-agent is not running.`  
`Config file /usr/local/percona/pmm/config/pmm-agent.yaml is not writable: no such file or directory.`  
`time=“2026-02-24T18:10:49.950+00:00” level=info msg=“‘pmm-agent setup’ exited with 1” component=entrypoint`  
`time=“2026-02-24T18:10:49.950+00:00” level=info msg=“Restarting pmm-agent setup in 5 seconds because PMM_AGENT_SIDECAR is enabled…” component=entrypoint`  
`time=“2026-02-24T18:10:54.951+00:00” level=info msg=“Starting ‘pmm-agent setup’…” component=entrypoint`  
`time=“2026-02-24T18:10:54.965+00:00” level=info msg=“Loading configuration file /usr/local/percona/pmm/config/pmm-agent.yaml.” component=setup`  
`time=“2026-02-24T18:10:54.965+00:00” level=info msg=“Using /usr/local/percona/pmm2/exporters/node_exporter” component=setup`  
`time=“2026-02-24T18:10:54.965+00:00” level=info msg=“Using /usr/local/percona/pmm2/exporters/mysqld_exporter” component=setup`  
`time=“2026-02-24T18:10:54.965+00:00” level=info msg=“Using /usr/local/percona/pmm2/exporters/mongodb_exporter” component=setup`  
`time=“2026-02-24T18:10:54.965+00:00” level=info msg=“Using /usr/local/percona/pmm2/exporters/postgres_exporter” component=setup`  
`time=“2026-02-24T18:10:54.965+00:00” level=info msg=“Using /usr/local/percona/pmm2/exporters/proxysql_exporter” component=setup`  
`time=“2026-02-24T18:10:54.965+00:00” level=info msg=“Using /usr/local/percona/pmm2/exporters/rds_exporter” component=setup`  
`time=“2026-02-24T18:10:54.965+00:00” level=info msg=“Using /usr/local/percona/pmm2/exporters/azure_exporter” component=setup`  
`time=“2026-02-24T18:10:54.965+00:00” level=info msg=“Using /usr/local/percona/pmm2/exporters/vmagent” component=setup`  
`time=“2026-02-24T18:10:54.965+00:00” level=info msg=“Updating PMM Server address from "10.20.3.20" to "10.20.3.20:443".” component=setup`  
`Checking local pmm-agent status…`

And of course, nothing shows up in the PMM admin page.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Glenn\_Glazer](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forums.percona.com/glenn_glazer/32/23250_2.png) [@Glenn\_Glazer](https://forums.percona.com/u/Glenn_Glazer)\
**Post date:** [February 24, 2026, 8:08pm UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/how-to-connect-pmm-to-the-quickstart-postgres-database/40249/9 "2026-02-24T20:08:33Z")

</div>

`spec.pmm.serverHost` is correct.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![anderson.nogueira](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forums.percona.com/anderson.nogueira/32/23141_2.png) [@anderson.nogueira](https://forums.percona.com/u/anderson.nogueira)\
**Post date:** [March 3, 2026, 3:03pm UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/how-to-connect-pmm-to-the-quickstart-postgres-database/40249/10 "2026-03-03T15:03:23Z")

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Hi @Glenn_Glazer,

I reproduced this on k3d with PG Operator 2.8.2 and saw the same config-path error. Building on @eleonora.zinchenko’s guidance, the pmm-agent failure in post #8 lines up with the PMM client image your pods are running. Your [gist](https://gist.github.com/gglazer-sightmachine/1cc36d5969b7c8f76b7ffecc8de56c90) shows `perconalab/pmm-client:dev-latest`, a development/CI image that only has the PMM2 directory structure (`/usr/local/percona/pmm2/`). The operator, running in PMM3 mode because your secret uses `PMM_SERVER_TOKEN`, sets the config path to `/usr/local/percona/pmm/config/pmm-agent.yaml`, which doesn’t exist in that image. Your pmm-agent logs in post #8 confirm this: the agent loads exporters from the PMM2 path (`/usr/local/percona/pmm2/exporters/`) but fails on the PMM3 config path.

In my test, the production image (`percona/pmm-client:3.5.0`) has the PMM3 directory and the sidecar starts correctly, while the dev image produces the exact error from your logs.

**Fix:** update `spec.pmm.image` in your CR to the certified image for operator 2.8.2:

```yaml
spec:
  pmm:
    enabled: true
    image: percona/pmm-client:3.5.0
    serverHost: <your-pmm-server-host>
    secret: cluster1-pmm-secret

```

Your secret is already correct (using `PMM_SERVER_TOKEN` for PMM3). After applying the updated CR, the operator will roll the pods with the new image.

I did not reproduce the `ConnectionResetError` or `replication-cert-copy` errors from post #8 in my test. If they persist after the image change, can you share `kubectl logs <pod> -c pmm-client` and `kubectl logs <pod> -c replication-cert-copy` from a freshly restarted pod?