I have recently tried pg_ctl promote to promote one of our standby server to promote as primary server. Eventually I will be doing this in production.
I could successfully execute the pg_ctl promote command. My only question do I have to change postgresql.conf and pg_hba.conf files manually to have parameters/settings specificto read/write server.
For example:
hot_standby to off from on in postgresql.conf host replication all (remove this from pg_hba.conf)
If you will promote your replica to master (open read/write mode) , you will not need to change the hot_standby parameter in postgresql.conf , because it will not affect the database with primary role.
The rule "host replication all" influces only who could connect to your new primary to create a hot standby database / streaming replication.