Admin Init Error：admin-server database connection failed: DSN string error (user=root confused with host)

[Topi9999]

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Dify version

1.12.1

Cloud or Self Hosted

Self Hosted (Docker)

Steps to reproduce

The environment variables for admin-server are configured correctly, but database connection errors still appear in the startup log, with confusing error messages (mixing user=root and user=postgres). This indicates that when constructing the database connection string, incorrect values from the configuration file may have been used, or there may be a bug in the code.

We finally saw the environment variables inside the admin-server container, and they are indeed correct: DB_PASSWORD=root, DB_USERNAME=postgres, DB_HOST=db_postgres, etc. This indicates that the environment variables are being passed correctly. However, the startup logs still show 'failed to initialize database, got error failed to connect to user=root database=dify: hostname resolving error: lookup user=postgres: no such host', which is very contradictory, because env shows DB_USERNAME=postgres, but the error message mentions user=root and lookup user=postgres. This suggests that when admin-server connects to the database, it may be using some values from the configuration file that override the environment variables, or there is a bug in the code causing the connection string to be concatenated incorrectly. From the error message 'user=root database=dify', it seems the username was mistakenly set to root, while in env it is postgres. At the same time, 'lookup user=postgres' shows it is trying to resolve the hostname as user=postgres, which absurdly indicates that it might be interpreting the entire connection string as the hostname. This is usually caused by an incorrectly formatted connection string, such as a missing @ symbol or using the wrong format. Let us review the database connection method of admin-server: it may use both environment variables and configuration files. Although the environment variables are correct, if certain fields in the configuration file (such as path or config) affect the final DSN construction, errors may occur. For example, in config.docker.yaml, the pgsql.config field is 'sslmode=disable TimeZone=Asia/Shanghai', which is correct. But perhaps in the code, if the path field is configured, it will use path as the hostname. Currently, pgsql.path is an empty string, which should be fine. However, there may still be other configuration areas (such as db-list) that interfere.

✔️ Expected Behavior

config is ok ,bug log show is error code to link

❌ Actual Behavior

install docker

[Topi9999]

After clicking to clear the cache and initializing the database here, this error still occurs!!! Therefore, I haven't clicked to clear the cache again, and I have rebuilt the image many times after deleting it. It's always this problem

[Topi9999]

Environment

• Deployment Method: Docker (docker-compose.dify-plus.yaml)

• Image Version:

• admin-server: ccr.ccs.tencentyun.com/yfgaia/dify-plus-admin-server:1.12.1

• postgres:15-alpine

• Operating System: Windows 11 (WSL2 Backend)

Problem

Database connection failed upon startup of admin-server. Logs showed:

failed to connect to user=root database=dify: hostname resolving error: lookup user=postgres: no such host

text Subsequent requests to interfaces such as /base/gaiaLoginOptions also panicked.

Configuration

.env

DB_TYPE=postgresql
DB_USERNAME=postgres
DB_PASSWORD=root
DB_HOST=db_postgres
DB_PORT=5432
DB_DATABASE=dify
REDIS_PASSWORD=root

text

The admin-server part of docker-compose.dify-plus.yaml

admin-server: 
environment: 
DB_TYPE: ${DB_TYPE} 
DB_HOST: ${DB_HOST} 
DB_PORT: ${DB_PORT} 
DB_USERNAME: ${DB_USERNAME} 
DB_PASSWORD: ${DB_PASSWORD} 
DB_DATABASE: ${DB_DATABASE}
pgsql section in config.docker.yaml
yaml
pgsql: 
path: "" 
port: "5432" 
config: "sslmode=disable TimeZone=Asia/Shanghai"

db-name: "dify"

username: "postgres"

password: "root"

Steps attempted:

Multiple clean-up volumes and redeployment

Manually create the missing table system_integration_extend

Check environment variables within the container (correct)

Check configuration file mounting (correct)

Suspected issue: Incorrectly populated struct fields in the code are causing DSN concatenation errors. Developers are requested to check the initialization process of global.GVA_CONFIG.Pgsql, especially why the Path field might be assigned the value "user=postgres".

Full error log

(Paste your full log)

text

---

### 2. **Temporarily Use Dify Core Functionality (Immediately Available)**

You have successfully started the Dify API and Web service and can access `http://127.0.0.1` to use core functions such as applications, datasets, and knowledge bases. The absence of the admin backend (admin) does not affect the main business processes. You can use this as a temporary solution while waiting for an official fix or finding an alternative management tool.

---

### 3. **Advanced Debugging: Running admin-server directly on the host machine (optional)**

If you have a Go development environment, you can try compiling and running admin-server directly on the host machine. This allows you to freely modify the code and add debugging statements. The steps are as follows:

1. On the host machine, navigate to the `dify-plus-1.12.1/admin/server` directory.

2. Modify `initialize/gorm_pgsql.go`, adding code to print the configuration (as previously suggested).

3. Compile: `go build -o admin-server main.go`.

4. Ensure the host machine can connect to the database within Docker (the `db_postgres` container exposes port 5432 to the host machine; you can connect using `localhost:5432`).

5. Create a copy of `config.docker.yaml` and change the database host to `localhost`.

6. Run `./admin-server -c config.docker.yaml` directly and observe the printed configuration values ​​and subsequent errors.

This method can bypass the limitations of container images and quickly locate the problem. If compilation is successful and the image runs, you can confirm whether the problem is related to the image packaging.

---

## 📌 Summary

- **Do not repeatedly clean up and restart**, the problem is not in the environment residue, but in the code or image itself.

- **Submit an issue to the official team immediately**, getting the developers involved is the fastest way to solve the root problem.

- **Temporarily using Dify's core functionality** will not affect your business.

- If you have Go development skills, you can try running it on the host machine for in-depth debugging.