I didn’t consciously change anything, but today, when just git pull-ed and tried to bootstrap the web_only.yml , its giving errors, after around 90 seconds of bootstrap process started. I’m pasting just the ending lines of the error, if its of any help to diagnose: /var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.1.0/gems/bootsnap-1.15.0/lib/bootsnap/load_path_cache/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:32:in `require' /var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.1.0/gems/bootsnap-1.15.0/lib/bootsnap/load_path_cache/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:32:in `require' /var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.1.0/gems/zeitwerk-2.6.6/lib/zeitwerk/kernel.rb:38:in `require' /var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.1.0/gems/railties-7.0.3.1/lib/rails/application.rb:348:in `require_environment!' /var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.1.0/gems/railties-7.0.3.1/lib/rails/application.rb:511:in `block in run_tasks_blocks' /var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.1.0/gems/rake-13.0.6/exe/rake:27:in ` ' /usr/local/bin/bundle:25:in `load' /usr/local/bin/bundle:25:in ` ' Tasks: TOP => db:migrate => db:load_config => environment (See full trace by running task with --trace) I, [2022-12-29T10:28:07.806753 #1] INFO -- : gem install geocoder -v 1.4.4 -i /var/www/discourse/plugins/discourse-locations/gems/3.1.3 --no-document --ignore-dependencies --no-user-install Successfully installed geocoder-1.4.4 1 gem installed FAILED -------------------- Pups::ExecError: cd /var/www/discourse && su discourse -c 'bundle exec rake db:migrate' failed with return # Location of failure: /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/3.1.0/gems/pups-1.1.1/lib/pups/exec_command.rb:117:in `spawn' exec failed with the params {"cd"=>"$home", "hook"=>"db_migrate", "cmd"=>["su discourse -c 'bundle exec rake db:migrate'"]} bootstrap failed with exit code 1 ** 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. 9b7ac0c88b42b2aa1eccb9ef291527f4afd8b71861669af66ab79dee5ed82a45 I can’t understand, why its not allowing the bootstrapping of the same yml file, which earlier was successful. My site, though, is working ok. I couldn’t find any ‘error’ in ‘Discourse-Doctor’ also ( I can only search for the word ‘error’, which wasn’t there in that resulting file of discourse doctor). I’m not an expert though.

[image] Bathinda Helper: How can I shutdown my forum (i.e. website)? Try running this in the command line before adding memory. This is assuming you have a standard install, as well. Make sure you’re in the /var/discourse directory. ./launcher stop app && ./launcher rebuild app && ./launcher start app

Your site seems to be offline right now. EDIT: Nope, it’s back. Most of it is in Hindi and I can’t read it though. Just to be sure. You have no plugins in your app.yml file enabled right now? They’re all commented/deleted?

Error code 137 is out of memory.

[image] Might this be a problem? Does Discourse need more than 4 gb now (even with all plugins off)? The other 2 wpress sites running on the same droplet/instance are almost dormant. Could there be an easy solution to this, other than to go for 8 gb ram machine?

Yes, you only have 400MB of memory free, which will not allow Discourse to rebuild. Try bumping it up to 4/5gb, or shutting down the forum before rebuilding and try again. Assuming that the 400mb free is at idle. Rebuilding is pretty intensive on the system (I’d look it up in Proxmox for my site, but it’s been offline for a bit now), and requires more memory than idling.

[image] Pyx : Try bumping it up to 4/5gb.. Sorry, but I didn’t understand the meaning well. Do you mean that I should further increase it by 4 to 5 GBs? I.e. make it from 4 gb to 8 or 9 gb? [image] Pyx : shutting down the forum before rebuilding and try again. How can I shutdown my forum (i.e. website)? And Do you mean that when after increasing my memory, even then I should turn down my website before rebuilding? Thanks for guiding me.

You’re correct!! I rebooted my ubuntu server, which allowed me to have around 7 to 800 MBs of free ram on my instance and bootstrapping succeeded. I’d have stop my container before another BS, if another rebuild/bs didn’t succeed after enabling the desired plugins. But I’m astonished at the new ram demands of the discourse. As the cost of the instance/droplet is almost doubling when I go from 4 to 8gb ram. Which I don’t wish, considering that mine is a very very very small website (perhaps 10 visitors a day). Earlier Discourse’s standard install shown to demand only 1 to 2 gb ram. Thanks very much for helping me recognizing what was going wrong.

If possible I recommend going for the 8gb machine if available. The 2gb machine is meant for smaller forums, and yours seems to have a lot of content.

Mine has 4 gb with very few visits as of now. WIll consider going for 8gb (no 6gb is there) in future. Btw, some articles on google were saying that the amount of free memory doesn’t matter much. As this is kind of wasted memory which is doing nothing. And users should rather go/check for ‘available memory’, which is available if need arises. And in my case, available memory is 1.4 Gb. [image] Again, I hope to be guided in this also, if you please.

What is your system doing with 1.4GB available?

[image] Pyx : at is your system doing with 1 As the above given screenshot/article tells, ‘available’ includes ‘buffer memory’ etc, which may be ‘available-to-system’ in case need arises. But I’m no expert on these things. And, I’m still researching on these, (again, I’m no expert). Though my guess is that my other 2 WP websites, which I consider almost dormant, may have something to do with this. Will try turning them off in some free time, and then compare the performance. For now, my problem of rebuilding is solved, without going for higher resources and paying almost double every month. Thanks to you.

Suddenly boot strapping is failing

Product Support Self-hosting

pfaffman (Jay Pfaffman) December 30, 2022, 11:57am 23

Running processes use memory. You can shut down apache and mysql and free the ram that they use, but if they are running, they use resources.

Topic		Replies	Views
High rebuild memory requirements: April 2025 edition Self-hosting hosting	32	1681	February 15, 2026
Rebuild Failed: bootstrap failed with exit code 137 Self-hosting	5	290	July 31, 2024
Troubleshooting bootstrap failures in Discourse Self-hosting	13	501	July 28, 2025
Failed to bootstrap due to out of memory killer Bug	35	3129	April 29, 2021
[Solved] Discourse Rebuild Failed to Bootstrap Product Support	4	3665	June 11, 2015

Suddenly boot strapping is failing

Related topics