# The former primary pod did not start as a replica during few scenarios

**URL:** <https://forums.percona.com/t/the-former-primary-pod-did-not-start-as-a-replica-during-few-scenarios/40819>\
**Category:** Percona Operator for PostgreSQL\
**Tags:** percona\
**Created:** [May 20, 2026, 7:37am UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/the-former-primary-pod-did-not-start-as-a-replica-during-few-scenarios/40819 "2026-05-20T07:37:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Srinivas](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forums.percona.com/srinivas/32/23606_2.png) [@Srinivas](https://forums.percona.com/u/Srinivas)\
**Post date:** [May 20, 2026, 7:37am UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/the-former-primary-pod-did-not-start-as-a-replica-during-few-scenarios/40819/1 "2026-05-20T07:37:24Z")

</div>

The former primary pod did not start as a replica during few scenarios either during network isolation or when its worker node was unavailable.

Below are performed to start former primary pod as replica and pod stuck at readiness 4/5 status

- Noticed pg\_rewind started in replica pod logs
- Replica recovery is blocked by a stale `postmaster.pid` file left over from the sudden node crash. Logged in replica pod and killed postmaster.pid process but no progress
- Tried delete replica pod and again stuck at the same point.
- Deleted pod then immediately deleted the pvc, then replica pod bootstrapped from the primary and pod readiness status is 5/5

This behavior happened in couple of scenarios, is this expected behavior or something our configuration is incorrect. Below is the error in replica pod logs, please suggest.

/tmp/postgres:5432 - rejecting connections  
2026-05-18 13:58:14,219 INFO: Lock owner: pg-cluster-ha-pg-db-pgsa-hql8-0; I am pg-cluster-ha-pg-db-pgsa-jmhg-0  
2026-05-18 13:58:14,219 INFO: Still starting up as a standby.  
2026-05-18 13:58:14,220 INFO: Lock owner: pg-cluster-ha-pg-db-pgsa-hql8-0; I am pg-cluster-ha-pg-db-pgsa-jmhg-0  
2026-05-18 13:58:14,220 INFO: establishing a new patroni heartbeat connection to postgres  
2026-05-18 13:58:15,043 INFO: establishing a new patroni heartbeat connection to postgres  
2026-05-18 13:58:15,044 WARNING: Retry got exception: connection problems  
2026-05-18 13:58:15,045 WARNING: Failed to determine PostgreSQL state from the connection, falling back to cached role  
2026-05-18 13:58:15,045 INFO: no action. I am (pg-cluster-ha-pg-db-pgsa-jmhg-0), a secondary, and following a leader (pg-cluster-ha-pg-db-pgsa-hql8-0)  
2026-05-18 13:58:17,027 INFO: establishing a new patroni heartbeat connection to postgres  
2026-05-18 13:58:18,500 INFO: establishing a new patroni heartbeat connection to postgres  
2026-05-18 13:58:18,502 WARNING: Retry got exception: connection problems

Below is the values.yaml used for setting up the primary and replica pods

[root@bastion-node pg-db]# cat values.yaml

# Default values for pg-cluster.

# This is a YAML-formatted file.

# Declare variables to be passed into your templates.

# annotations:

# test-annotation: value

finalizers:

# Set this if you want that operator deletes the PVCs on cluster deletion

# - [percona.com/delete-pvc](http://percona.com/delete-pvc)

# Set this if you want that operator deletes the ssl objects on cluster deletion

# - [percona.com/delete-ssl](http://percona.com/delete-ssl)

# Set this if you want that operator deletes the backups on cluster deletion

# - [percona.com/delete-backups](http://percona.com/delete-backups)

crVersion: 2.8.2

# example-annotation: value

# labels:

# example-label: value

service:

# Valid type are NodePort or LoadBalancer. Defaults to NodePort

type: LoadBalancer

# If Postgrescluster has to be deployed on the openshift env, set openshift: true.

openshift: true

repository: [registry.connect.redhat.com/percona/percona-postgresql-operator-containers](http://registry.connect.redhat.com/percona/percona-postgresql-operator-containers)  
image: [registry.connect.redhat.com/percona/percona-postgresql-operator-containers:2.8.2-ppg-16-postgres](http://registry.connect.redhat.com/percona/percona-postgresql-operator-containers:2.8.2-ppg-16-postgres)  
imagePullPolicy: Always  
imagePullSecrets:

- name: rh-catalog  
postgresVersion: 16

# port: 5432

pause: false  
unmanaged: false  
standby:  
enabled: false

# host: “”

# port: “”

# repoName: repo1

# customRootCATLSSecret:

# name: cluster1-ca-cert

# items:

# - key: “tls.crt”

# path: “root.crt”

# - key: “tls.key”

# path: “root.key”

customTLSSecret:  
name: “”  
customReplicationTLSSecret:  
name: “”

volumes:

instances:

- name: pgsa  
replicas: 2

# expose:

# type: ClusterIP

dataVolumeClaimSpec:  
storageClassName: ocs-storagecluster-ceph-rbd  
accessModes:

- ReadWriteOnce  
resources:  
requests:  
storage: 5Gi

affinity:  
nodeAffinity:  
requiredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution:  
nodeSelectorTerms:

- matchExpressions:
- key: database  
operator: In # The “equals” logic  
values:
- postgres # The label value on your node

```auto
podAntiAffinity:
  requiredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution:
  - labelSelector:
      matchLabels:
        postgres-operator.crunchydata.com/data: postgres
    topologyKey: kubernetes.io/hostname

```

patroni:  
dynamicConfiguration:  
dcs:  
maximum\_lag\_on\_failover: 104857600  
loop\_wait: 10  
retry\_timeout: 10

proxy:  
pgBouncer:  
replicas: 0  
image: [docker.io/percona/percona-pgbouncer:1.25.0-1](http://docker.io/percona/percona-pgbouncer:1.25.0-1)

```auto
affinity:
  podAntiAffinity:
    preferredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution:
    - weight: 1
      podAffinityTerm:
        labelSelector:
          matchLabels:
            postgres-operator.crunchydata.com/role: pgbouncer
        topologyKey: kubernetes.io/hostname

```

backups:  
enabled: true  
trackLatestRestorableTime: true

pgbackrest:  
image: [registry.connect.redhat.com/percona/percona-postgresql-operator-containers:2.8.2-ppg-16-pgbackrest](http://registry.connect.redhat.com/percona/percona-postgresql-operator-containers:2.8.2-ppg-16-pgbackrest)  
env:   
envFrom:

```auto
repos:
  - name: repo1
    schedules:
      full: "12 1 * * *"
      differential: "01 11 * * 1-6"
    volume:
      volumeClaimSpec:
        accessModes:
          - ReadWriteOnce
        resources:
          requests:
            storage: 5Gi
global:
  repo1-retention-full: "2"
  repo1-retention-diff: "7"
  repo1-retention-full-type: time
  repo1-cipher-type: none

repoHost:
  affinity:
    podAntiAffinity:
      preferredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution:
        - weight: 1
          podAffinityTerm:
            labelSelector:
              matchLabels:
                postgres-operator.crunchydata.com/data: pgbackrest
            topologyKey: kubernetes.io/hostname

```

backupaffinity:  
enabled: true  
nodeSelectorTerms:  
key: database  
value: postgres

pmm:  
enabled: true  
image:  
repository: [docker.io/percona/pmm-client](http://docker.io/percona/pmm-client)  
tag: 3.4.1

# imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent

# secret: cluster1-pmm-secret

serverHost: “pmm-server.pmm.svc.cluster.local”  
secret: pmm-secret  
resources:  
requests:  
memory: 256Mi  
cpu: 500m

secrets:  
name:

# replication user password

primaryuser:

# superuser password

postgres: postgres

# pgbouncer user password

pgbouncer:

# pguser user password

pguser:  
[root@bastion-node pg-db]#