Createdb: error: database creation failed: ERROR: database "discourse" already exists

Installation
1

I met an error when install discourse firstly in my server
Ubuntu 22.04LTS
Discourse latest GitHub version
2GB mem
2GB swap

error


2023-06-08 01:19:04.972 UTC [55] postgres@template1 ERROR:  database "discourse" already exists
2023-06-08 01:19:04.972 UTC [55] postgres@template1 STATEMENT:  CREATE DATABASE discourse;
createdb: error: database creation failed: ERROR:  database "discourse" already exists
I, [2023-06-08T01:19:04.977485 #1]  INFO -- : 
I, [2023-06-08T01:19:04.978414 #1]  INFO -- : > su postgres -c 'psql discourse -c "create user discourse;"' || true
2023-06-08 01:19:05.654 UTC [59] postgres@discourse ERROR:  role "discourse" already exists
2023-06-08 01:19:05.654 UTC [59] postgres@discourse STATEMENT:  create user discourse;
ERROR:  role "discourse" already exists

reason

it’s my first installation in the server, but i have rebuild app many times of falure with other errors like My server can access github, but docker can't - #2 by whitewaterdeu

i don’t know when i have created the database and how to fix it

my app.yml 

root@cvm-3k8ngdw25i225:/var/discourse# cat containers/app.yml
## this is the all-in-one, standalone Discourse Docker container template
##
## After making changes to this file, you MUST rebuild
## /var/discourse/launcher rebuild app
##
## BE *VERY* CAREFUL WHEN EDITING!
## YAML FILES ARE SUPER SUPER SENSITIVE TO MISTAKES IN WHITESPACE OR ALIGNMENT!
## visit http://www.yamllint.com/ to validate this file as needed

templates:
  - "templates/postgres.template.yml"
  - "templates/redis.template.yml"
  # - "templates/web.china.template.yml"
  - "templates/web.template.yml"
  ## Uncomment the next line to enable the IPv6 listener
  #- "templates/web.ipv6.template.yml"
  - "templates/web.ratelimited.template.yml"
  ## Uncomment these two lines if you wish to add Lets Encrypt (https)
  - "templates/web.ssl.template.yml"
  - "templates/web.letsencrypt.ssl.template.yml"

## which TCP/IP ports should this container expose?
## If you want Discourse to share a port with another webserver like Apache or nginx,
## see https://meta.discourse.org/t/17247 for details
expose:
  - "80:80"   # http
  - "443:443" # https

params:
  db_default_text_search_config: "pg_catalog.english"

  ## Set db_shared_buffers to a max of 25% of the total memory.
  ## will be set automatically by bootstrap based on detected RAM, or you can override
  db_shared_buffers: "256MB"

  ## can improve sorting performance, but adds memory usage per-connection
  #db_work_mem: "40MB"

  ## Which Git revision should this container use? (default: tests-passed)
  #version: tests-passed

env:
  LC_ALL: en_US.UTF-8
  LANG: en_US.UTF-8
  LANGUAGE: en_US.UTF-8
  # DISCOURSE_DEFAULT_LOCALE: en

  ## How many concurrent web requests are supported? Depends on memory and CPU cores.
  ## will be set automatically by bootstrap based on detected CPUs, or you can override
  UNICORN_WORKERS: 4

  ## TODO: The domain name this Discourse instance will respond to
  ## Required. Discourse will not work with a bare IP number.
  DISCOURSE_HOSTNAME: discuss.beginner.center

  ## Uncomment if you want the container to be started with the same
  ## hostname (-h option) as specified above (default "$hostname-$config")
  #DOCKER_USE_HOSTNAME: true

  ## TODO: List of comma delimited emails that will be made admin and developer
  ## on initial signup example 'user1@example.com,user2@example.com'
  DISCOURSE_DEVELOPER_EMAILS: 'whitewatercn@outlook.com'

  ## TODO: The SMTP mail server used to validate new accounts and send notifications
  # SMTP ADDRESS, username, and password are required
  # WARNING the char '#' in SMTP password can cause problems!
  DISCOURSE_SMTP_ADDRESS: smtp.mailgun.org
  DISCOURSE_SMTP_PORT: 587
  DISCOURSE_SMTP_USER_NAME: notification@mg.beinner.center
  DISCOURSE_SMTP_PASSWORD: "my smtp password"
  #DISCOURSE_SMTP_ENABLE_START_TLS: true           # (optional, default true)
  DISCOURSE_SMTP_DOMAIN: mg.beinner.center
  DISCOURSE_NOTIFICATION_EMAIL: notification@mg.beinner.center

  ## If you added the Lets Encrypt template, uncomment below to get a free SSL certificate
  LETSENCRYPT_ACCOUNT_EMAIL: notification@mg.beinner.center

  ## The http or https CDN address for this Discourse instance (configured to pull)
  ## see https://meta.discourse.org/t/14857 for details
  #DISCOURSE_CDN_URL: https://discourse-cdn.example.com
  
  ## The maxmind geolocation IP address key for IP address lookup
  ## see https://meta.discourse.org/t/-/137387/23 for details
  #DISCOURSE_MAXMIND_LICENSE_KEY: 1234567890123456

## The Docker container is stateless; all data is stored in /shared
volumes:
  - volume:
      host: /var/discourse/shared/standalone
      guest: /shared
  - volume:
      host: /var/discourse/shared/standalone/log/var-log
      guest: /var/log

## Plugins go here
## see https://meta.discourse.org/t/19157 for details
hooks:
  after_code:
    - exec:
        cd: $home/plugins
        cmd:
          - git clone https://github.com/discourse/docker_manager.git

## Any custom commands to run after building
run:
  - exec: echo "Beginning of custom commands"
  ## If you want to set the 'From' email address for your first registration, uncomment and change:
  ## After getting the first signup email, re-comment the line. It only needs to run once.
  - exec: rails r "SiteSetting.notification_email='notification@mg.beinner.center'"
  - exec: echo "End of custom commands"
root@cvm-3k8ngdw25i225:/var/discourse#

whole log

2

That’s strange. I don’t see how that could happen, as such an error should get caught when the code was committed. You might just try to rebuild again.

I see that you have the unsupported-install tag chosen, but this looks like a standard install to me.

2 Likes
3

thanks for your reply ,jay
i have searched for error line in the whole log , maybe it’s caused by

2023-06-08 01:19:04.972 UTC [55] postgres@template1 ERROR:  database "discourse" already exists
2023-06-08 01:19:04.972 UTC [55] postgres@template1 STATEMENT:  CREATE DATABASE discourse;
createdb: error: database creation failed: ERROR:  database "discourse" already exists
I, [2023-06-08T01:19:04.977485 #1]  INFO -- : 
I, [2023-06-08T01:19:04.978414 #1]  INFO -- : > su postgres -c 'psql discourse -c "create user discourse;"' || true
2023-06-08 01:19:05.654 UTC [59] postgres@discourse ERROR:  role "discourse" already exists
2023-06-08 01:19:05.654 UTC [59] postgres@discourse STATEMENT:  create user discourse;
ERROR:  role "discourse" already exists

it’s my first installation in the server, but i have rebuild app many times of falure with other errors like My server can access github, but docker can’t - #2 by whitewaterdeu

i don’t know when i have created the database and how to fix it

4

If you’re starting fresh, you can

rm -rf shared/standalone

You are also likely to hit let’s encrypt rate limit issues. The easiest solution is to choose a new subdomain when you’ve solved your other issues.

Oh, now I see the web China template commented out. Don’t you need that?

1 Like
5

Did you can to solve this problem? I have a similar error.


I, [2023-07-12T20:27:26.203859 #1]  INFO -- : > su postgres -c 'createdb discourse' || true
2023-07-12 20:27:26.398 UTC [55] postgres@postgres ERROR:  database "discourse" already exists
2023-07-12 20:27:26.398 UTC [55] postgres@postgres STATEMENT:  CREATE DATABASE discourse;
createdb: error: database creation failed: ERROR:  database "discourse" already exists
I, [2023-07-12T20:27:26.423480 #1]  INFO -- : 
I, [2023-07-12T20:27:26.423858 #1]  INFO -- : > su postgres -c 'psql discourse -c "create user discourse;"' || true
2023-07-12 20:27:26.599 UTC [59] postgres@discourse ERROR:  role "discourse" already exists
2023-07-12 20:27:26.599 UTC [59] postgres@discourse STATEMENT:  create user discourse;
ERROR:  role "discourse" already exists

Our script was working normally…

6

This error is not a problem, you can ignore it.

2 Likes