# How to resolve Pups exec errors during Discourse bootstrap

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-resolve-pups-exec-errors-during-discourse-bootstrap/362619>\
**Category:** Support\
**Created:** [April 18, 2025, 12:38pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-resolve-pups-exec-errors-during-discourse-bootstrap/362619 "2025-04-18T12:38:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 10

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**Author:** ![Thomas\_Rother](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/thomas_rother/32/423597_2.png) [@Thomas\_Rother](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Thomas_Rother)\
**Post date:** [April 19, 2025, 9:01pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-resolve-pups-exec-errors-during-discourse-bootstrap/362619/10 "2025-04-19T21:01:53Z")

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OK, I fixed the separation of web\_only and redis. Error msg now is

`FAILED `  
`-------------------- `  
`Pups::ExecError: cd /var/www/discourse && su discourse -c 'bundle exec rake db:migrate' failed with return #<Process::Status: pid 981 e`  
`xit 1> `  
`Location of failure: /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/3.3.0/gems/pups-1.2.1/lib/pups/exec_command.rb:132:in `spawn' `  
`exec failed with the params {"cd"=>"$home", "tag"=>"migrate", "hook"=>"db_migrate", "cmd"=>["su discourse -c 'bundle exec rake db:migra`  
`te'"]} `  
`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. `  
`801049b69a89d38b1ae5c299d356fc5f8dc6a8f518b1260c2dde05e0b6081556`

But maybe its a misunderstanding / lack of knowledge on my side:

The database should be external on another lxc container which has a postgresql database. The database user and database exists, but the database is empty before the first bootstrap of web\_only. Does the script create the database itself on the remote system upon first build? Or do I first have to create the database container and then export its default scheme and the data manually to the external postgresql daemon?

# Visualization of the overall setup

 ![forum2 Setup.excalidraw](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/f/b/8/fb8c126cf8146db2da1667330d78bc3432181014.svg)

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