"db init" with postgres for Airflow - airflow

Question

I am referencing to this doc and this article in linking a Postgres database to Airflow.
Particularly, I added this line to the file airflow.cfg:
sql_alchemy_conn = postgresql+psycopg2://airflowadmin:airflowadmin#localhost/airflowdb
where airflowadmin is both the username and password for the postgres user and password, and airflowdb is a postgres db created, with airflowadmin having all the privileges.
Now, when I initialize the database with airflow db init, however, I still see sqlite being the linked database. Full output:
DB: sqlite:////home/userxxxx/airflow/airflow.db
[2021-09-07 12:43:53,827] {db.py:702} INFO - Creating tables
INFO [alembic.runtime.migration] Context impl SQLiteImpl.
INFO [alembic.runtime.migration] Will assume non-transactional DDL.
WARNI [airflow.models.crypto] empty cryptography key - values will not be stored encrypted.
WARNI [unusual_prefix_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_example_kubernetes_executor_config] Could not import DAGs in example_kubernetes_executor_config.py: No module named 'kubernetes'
WARNI [unusual_prefix_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_example_kubernetes_executor_config] Install kubernetes dependencies with: pip install apache-airflow['cncf.kubernetes']
Initialization done
What am I missing?

Answer 1

Make sure the airflow.cfg file you are changing is the same that is actually being loaded by Airflow. From the CLI run:
airflow info
Search under the Paths info section and compare it with the path of the folder with the airflow.cfg file that you are modifying.
airflow info:
ache Airflow
version | 2.1.2
executor | SequentialExecutor
task_logging_handler | airflow.utils.log.file_task_handler.FileTaskHandler
sql_alchemy_conn | sqlite:////home/vagrant/airflow/airflow.db
dags_folder | /home/vagrant/airflow/dags
plugins_folder | /home/vagrant/airflow/plugins
base_log_folder | /home/vagrant/airflow/logs
remote_base_log_folder |
System info
OS
...
...
Paths info
airflow_home | /home/vagrant/airflow
...
When not defined during the local installation process, the default value of airflow_homeis AIRFLOW_HOME=~/airflow, so I guess that may be the cause of your problem.