Hi All- First post here, thanks in advance for having me. Running a routine albeit overdue set of upgrades on our Discourse-powered forum ( https://forum.troygrady.com ), and we’ve hit a point where the upgrade fails after doing the command line “git pull” and “rebuild” steps as advised by the on-screen instructions. See below for the output of the “./launcher rebuild app” command. I also ran the “discourse doctor” script, and can post or forward a link to that output as well, provided you think that wouldn’t pose too much of a security concern. I should note that while I’m a reasonably competent PHP / SQL developer with occasional Linux application admin experience, I’m not at all technical with Discourse, and I’m not the one who set up our initial install. Your favorite, I know! I’m just following the on-screen instructions here, which began with clicking the blue “upgrade” buttons in the UI for the docker. Once that was complete, I saw the on-screen instruction to log in via the command line and run the git pull and launcher rebuild. That’s how I’ve arrived at this point. I’d also add that our forum was running absolutely perfectly prior to this, with no issues at all, if that helps diagnose. The only reason we’re performing this upgrade is simply to stay current with stuff you guys are releasing so as not to get too far out of date. This is the central conflict of my “ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality, fearing that upgrading will cause some error that’s beyond my ability to fix. And indeed, here we are. As of this typing, the forum is completely offline, and given that this is a core component of our business, I’d love to get it operational as soon as possible. Any insight greatly appreciated! – FAILED Pups::ExecError: cd /var/www/discourse && su discourse -c ‘bundle exec rake db:migrate’ failed with return # Location of failure: /pups/lib/pups/exec_command.rb:112:in `spawn’ exec failed with the params {“cd”=>“$home”, “hook”=>“db_migrate”, “cmd”=>[“su discourse -c ‘bundle exec rake db:migrate’”]} f89318158c2c276c69a60d600def8a838ae4ad4bc7bafbe665fb1cd77c130ad1 ** FAILED TO BOOTSTRAP ** please scroll up and look for earlier error messages, there may be more than one. ./discourse-doctor may help diagnose the problem.

[תמונה] troygrady: Location of failure: /pups/lib/pups/exec_command.rb:112:in `spawn’ hey, welcome to the discourse community. Where are you installing, what OS? You are following our official guide?

[תמונה] troygrady: and look for earlier error messages I think you might have earlier error messages indeed, it looks like your database (server) might be inaccessible. [תמונה] troygrady: given that this is a core component of our business Maybe you should consider managed hosting once you have your forum up and running again…

Hi Gavin! Thanks for the speedy response. We’re on a Droplet via Digital Ocean, and when I log in it looks like: Welcome to Ubuntu 16.04.6 LTS (GNU/Linux 4.4.0-210-generic x86_64) As far as using your official guide, that I can’t say. This is an installation that we’ve been running for maybe 3-4 years without issue, though I was not the individual that set it up initially. It has typically only required in-browser upgrades, and the occasional command-line rebuild, which have all worked with essentially no other input from us until now. [תמונה] RGJ: I think you might have earlier error messages indeed, it looks like your database (server) might be inaccessible. I have the entire terminal output of the rebuild saved to a file and can scan that. But we’re in a virtual droplet environment and have not changed anything about it since we set it up. In fact, we rarely log in since Discourse hums along with the in-browser upgrades. So I’m not sure what would have changed to suddenly make the db inaccessible. [תמונה] RGJ: Maybe you should consider managed hosting once you have your forum up and running again… Sure. This is a case of things working fine for years on end, so there’s not much twisting our arm to change it. But we’d be happy to hire someone to take a look occasionally at what we have installed and make sure things are up to date, rather than me doing it. Is there a resource or directory for locating Discourse pros who might be open to this sort of thing? Thanks!

[תמונה] troygrady: Ubuntu 16.04.6 LTS you would need to look at updating that. its old. very old. but lets 1st get you up and running. can you post the error log. need to see what the actual error is

Ok, grepping for warnings and errors in the rebuild output, here’s what I’ve got (below). – 227:initdb: warning: enabling “trust” authentication for local connections 294:update-alternatives: warning: forcing reinstallation of alternative /usr/share/postgresql/13/man/man1/psql.1.gz because link group psql.1.gz is broken 324:update-alternatives: warning: forcing reinstallation of alternative /usr/share/postgresql/13/man/man1/postmaster.1.gz because link group postmaster.1.gz is broken – 1684:createdb: error: database creation failed: ERROR: database “discourse” already exists 1811:I, [2021-08-29T20:18:40.246150 #1] INFO – : > cd /var/www/discourse && bash -c “touch -a /shared/log/rails/{production,production_errors,unicorn.stdout,unicorn.stderr,sidekiq}.log” 1813:I, [2021-08-29T20:18:40.253584 #1] INFO – : > cd /var/www/discourse && bash -c “ln -s /shared/log/rails/{production,production_errors,unicorn.stdout,unicorn.stderr,sidekiq}.log /var/www/discourse/log” 2563:StandardError: An error has occurred, this and all later migrations canceled: 2698:-- add_column(:groups, :imap_last_error, :text) 2961:** FAILED TO BOOTSTRAP ** please scroll up and look for earlier error messages, there may be more than one. 3118:createdb: error: database creation failed: ERROR: database “discourse” already exists 3245:I, [2021-08-29T20:22:40.262592 #1] INFO – : > cd /var/www/discourse && bash -c “touch -a /shared/log/rails/{production,production_errors,unicorn.stdout,unicorn.stderr,sidekiq}.log” 3247:I, [2021-08-29T20:22:40.274767 #1] INFO – : > cd /var/www/discourse && bash -c “ln -s /shared/log/rails/{production,production_errors,unicorn.stdout,unicorn.stderr,sidekiq}.log /var/www/discourse/log” 3960:StandardError: An error has occurred, this and all later migrations canceled: 4087:** FAILED TO BOOTSTRAP ** please scroll up and look for earlier error messages, there may be more than one. 4224:/error – search for the word ‘error’ 4358:createdb: error: database creation failed: ERROR: database “discourse” already exists 4485:I, [2021-08-29T20:26:59.373901 #1] INFO – : > cd /var/www/discourse && bash -c “touch -a /shared/log/rails/{production,production_errors,unicorn.stdout,unicorn.stderr,sidekiq}.log” 4487:I, [2021-08-29T20:26:59.381142 #1] INFO – : > cd /var/www/discourse && bash -c “ln -s /shared/log/rails/{production,production_errors,unicorn.stdout,unicorn.stderr,sidekiq}.log /var/www/discourse/log” 5200:StandardError: An error has occurred, this and all later migrations canceled: 5327:** FAILED TO BOOTSTRAP ** please scroll up and look for earlier error messages, there may be more than one.

Thanks again for taking a look at this Gavin, and sorry for the neglected OS upgrades. Above is just what I get when grepping for words “error” and “warning” in the script output, the entirety of which I have saved here. If there’s anything else I should be looking for in that output, just let me know, happy to post.

Ah, sorry, I realize that output is somewhat less than explanatory. Here’s the detail around the “StandardError” message. Looks like an INSERT query failed because of a duplicate key. Query guts redacted for readbility, I can include those if necessary. – I, [2021-08-29T20:23:37.257772 #1] INFO – : > cd /var/www/discourse && su discourse -c ‘bundle exec rake db:migrate’ 2021-08-29 20:23:42.937 UTC [3996] discourse@discourse ERROR: duplicate key value violates unique constraint “data_explorer_queries_pkey” 2021-08-29 20:23:42.937 UTC [3996] discourse@discourse DETAIL: Key (id)=(-2) already exists. 2021-08-29 20:23:42.937 UTC [3996] discourse@discourse STATEMENT: INSERT INTO […] FROM plugin_store_rows WHERE plugin_name = ‘discourse-data-explorer’ AND type_name = ‘JSON’ rake aborted! StandardError: An error has occurred, this and all later migrations canceled: ERROR: duplicate key value violates unique constraint “data_explorer_queries_pkey” DETAIL: Key (id)=(-2) already exists.

[תמונה] troygrady: duplicate key value violates unique constraint “data_explorer_queries_pkey” try this [תמונה] Duplicate data explorer key blocking rebuild Support Hey all, Rare I ask for help, but I’m puzzled about how to resolve this. Just rebuilt my site and getting this: discourse-data-explorer is already at latest compatible version I, [2020-08-28T17:53:57.578920 #1] INFO -- : > cd /var/www/discourse && su discourse -c 'bundle exec rake db:migrate' 2020-08-28 17:54:07.380 UTC [3060] discourse@discourse ERROR: duplicate key value violates unique constraint "data_explorer_queries_pkey" 2020-08-28 17:54:07.380 UTC [3060] discourse@discourse DETAIL:…

[תמונה] troygrady: I have the entire terminal output of the rebuild saved to a file and can scan that. Yes, that works (as you have seen). [תמונה] troygrady: So I’m not sure what would have changed to suddenly make the db inaccessible. Something went wrong during the upgrade itself. [תמונה] troygrady: Is there a resource or directory for locating Discourse pros who might be open to this sort of thing? Just post your needs in #marketplace or look through it to see who regularly respond there.

[תמונה] troygrady: so there’s not much twisting our arm to change it. But all you need to do is, once discourse is up and running again. backup discourse. download the backup update the droplet rebuild the app then you should be good to go for another few years

שגיאת שדרוג Discourse "FAILED TO BOOTSTRAP"

תמיכה

RGJ (Richard - Communiteq) 29 באוגוסט,‏ 2021,‏ 9:45pm 10

Yes, that works (as you have seen).

Something went wrong during the upgrade itself.

Just post your needs in #marketplace or look through it to see who regularly respond there.

נושא		תגובות	צפיות
Discourse upgrade via Web UI Fails & SSH Upgrade Brings Down Discourse Instance Self-hosting	16	2493	26 בנובמבר,‏ 2021
An upgrade knocked my site offline; how long until it's restored? Self-hosting	15	726	10 ביולי,‏ 2025
Problem upgrading Discourse Self-hosting	4	1663	11 באוקטובר,‏ 2019
Migration from discourse v2.8.13 (on Ubuntu 20.04.6 LTS) to latest Self-hosting	3	914	15 באוגוסט,‏ 2023
Forum not working after update – what’s missing? Self-hosting	35	1057	4 בספטמבר,‏ 2025

שגיאת שדרוג Discourse "FAILED TO BOOTSTRAP"

נושאים קשורים