diff --git a/howto/postgresql.md b/howto/postgresql.md
index 96d4c7387d164d3e009a0bd51c7f14ee38d1ba2c..c4ca5f1a3828deb83d10c10324eb29b9ea30fbf5 100644
--- a/howto/postgresql.md
+++ b/howto/postgresql.md
@@ -2123,6 +2123,9 @@ PostgreSQL servers are automatically configured to use pgBackRest to
 backup to a central server (called `repository`), as soon as the
 `profile::postgresql` is included.
 
+This takes a few times to converge: at first, the catalog on the
+repository side will fail because of missing SSH keys on the client.
+
 By default, the `backup-storage-01.torproject.org` server is used as a
 repository, but this can be overridden in Hiera with the
 `profile::postgresql::pgbackrest_repository` parameter.