Geo: Could not change to directory "/root" while running gitlab-ctl promote-to-primary-node

Summary

(Summarize the bug encountered concisely)

When attempting a promotion as root switching to /root fails. The promotion itself succeeds.

Steps to reproduce

• Run sudo -i
• Run gitlab-ctl promot-to-primary-node

What is the current bug behavior?

(What actually happens) Switching to /root fails

What is the expected correct behavior?

(What you should see instead) Switching to /root succeeds

Relevant logs and/or screenshots

root@host:~# gitlab-ctl promote-to-primary-node
Ensure you have completed the following manual preflight checks:
- Check if you need to migrate to Object Storage
- Review configuration of each secondary node
- Run system checks
- Check that secrets match between nodes
- Ensure Geo replication is up-to-date
- Verify the integrity of replicated data
- Notify users of scheduled maintenance
Please read https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/administration/geo/disaster_recovery/planned_fail
over.html#preflight-checks
Did you perform all manual preflight checks (y/n)?
y
---------------------------------------
WARNING: Make sure your primary is down
If you have more than one secondary please see https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/gitlab-geo/dis
aster-recovery.html#promoting-secondary-geo-replica-in-multi-secondary-configurations
There may be data saved to the primary that was not been replicated to the secondary bef
ore the primary went offline. This data should be treated as lost if you proceed.
---------------------------------------
*** Is primary down? (N/y): y
All preflight checks have passed. This node can now be promoted.
Promoting the PostgreSQL to primary...
could not change directory to "/root": Permission denied    <--------- Why are we changing dir?
waiting for server to promote.... done
server promoted
[....]

Results of GitLab environment info

Expand for output related to GitLab environment info

sudo gitlab-rake gitlab:env:info
System information
System:         Ubuntu 18.04
Proxy:          no
Current User:   git
Using RVM:      no
Ruby Version:   2.6.6p146
Gem Version:    2.7.10
Bundler Version:1.17.3
Rake Version:   12.3.3
Redis Version:  5.0.9
Git Version:    2.27.0
Sidekiq Version:5.2.7
Go Version:     unknown
GitLab information
Version:        13.1.1-ee
Revision:       a604fffd4ba
Directory:      /opt/gitlab/embedded/service/gitlab-rails
DB Adapter:     PostgreSQL
DB Version:     11.7
URL:            http://xxx
HTTP Clone URL: http://xxx.git
SSH Clone URL:  git@fxxx:some-group/some-project.git
Elasticsearch:  no

Possible fixes