Getting a more descriptive error message from my instance

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AI-generated summary

The user vel is experiencing a 502 Bad Gateway error on their Discourse instance’s home page. They are seeking a way to obtain a more descriptive error message and troubleshoot the issue.

merefield suggests checking the build log for errors, which can be found in the console when running the build command. They also advise commenting out each plugin clone command in app.yml and rebuilding to disable plugins.

Since vel upgraded through the site’s upgrade page and not the command line, merefield provides instructions on how to rebuild the app via SSH. However, vel mentions that their instance was built by an auto-installer and they didn’t use the command line initially.

After finding a terminal with their hosting provider, vel runs the rebuild command and reports success after about an hour [(/t/-/331980/9).

vel suggests adding a feature to run the rebuild command from the browser admin page and providing a note or link to a help page on the upgrade page in case of issues. They reiterate this suggestion in post 10.

1

Hi all, I’m having a bit of trouble with my discourse.

My site is showing a 502 Bad Gateway on the home page like so,

image
image587×174 5.09 KB

Is there a way to get a more descriptive error message?

Is there a way to start my instance without any plugins?

Is there a page that will show the logs so I might be able to see what plugin might be causing the issue?

Is there a way to access the site at all through the browser? As in, can the admin pages still work even if the main site does not?

Basically, what do I do to start to solve this?

–
BTW Reading through more posts here, I might have done something to cause this inadvertently.
IIRC I went to the upgrade page and updated the plugins and then attempted to upgrade the Discourse core install. It didn’t say not to or suggest that install order mattered.
I used the upgrade page, not a terminal or command line.
If this is backwards or can cause issues please let me know.

2

This almost certainly means you are not serving pages because the build didn’t complete successfully

Yes, look at your build log first (printed to console) when you run the build command. There’s probably an error there.

Comment out each plugin clone command with a leading # in app.yml and rebuild.

(disabling in admin menu is not a complete disable often)

3

Hi Robert,
I’m not using the command line but I upgraded through the site upgrade page. I’ve added a comment into my post.

I also feel a slight duty to test the site upgrade page and report errors. Though at this point in time I’d rather get my site back up and running so I will use a command line.

How do I do the suggestion above? The upgrade was last week through the browser.

4

ssh into the server (as you did when you first built the instance), navigate to /var/discourse and run ./launcher rebuild app

5

I didn’t ssh into the machine. It was built by an auto installer. But I’ll see if I can do that. Thanks.

6

can you elaborate?

that’s almost certainly not supported.

7

I had a prebuilt instance created and setup. It might have been a docker instance or image. I didn’t do any command line install. But I found a terminal with my hosting provider and I’m running that command now. I’ll report back.

8

Just a suggestion. If it’s possible, can I run this command from the browser admin in the future. I don’t know if the update page does this already or not but if this is the fix all, it might be helpful to have it on the admin page.

Also, the log notes said it can take up to an hour to run. If I closed the browser window when I was doing an update through that would that cause an issue? It seemed unresponsive (no log messages for a while IIRC).

9

Rebuilding worked. Took about one hour. Site is back.

My host had an online terminal feature that I was able to use to rebuild.

10

Would still like to volunteer these ideas for those who use the browser to upgrade. Or even a note in the upgrade page, maybe a link to a help page that says, “If anything goes wrong with this upgrade start here.”