Trying to recover an installation

I installed Discourse in a CentOS machine following the guide here.
In case it helps, we are also using NGINX Proxy Manager.

The installation worked a few weeks, until we had to reboot the machine. Then it failed to start. Here the rebuild output:

Ensuring launcher is up to date
Launcher is up-to-date
2.0.20230409-0052: Pulling from discourse/base
Digest: sha256:dd75ceb9322f79629f8b0bf78cfb0f79ad6bb366b7ead3e1cd32dcb8712ec46f
Status: Image is up to date for discourse/base:2.0.20230409-0052
docker.io/discourse/base:2.0.20230409-0052
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/3.2.0/gems/pups-1.1.1/lib/pups.rb
/usr/local/bin/pups --stdin
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:28.002076 #1]  INFO -- : Reading from stdin
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:28.005509 #1]  INFO -- : > locale-gen $LANG && update-locale
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:28.031953 #1]  INFO -- : Generating locales (this might take a while)...
Generation complete.

I, [2023-04-13T09:55:28.032080 #1]  INFO -- : > mkdir -p /shared/postgres_run
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:28.034322 #1]  INFO -- :
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:28.034470 #1]  INFO -- : > chown postgres:postgres /shared/postgres_run
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:28.036190 #1]  INFO -- :
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:28.036297 #1]  INFO -- : > chmod 775 /shared/postgres_run
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:28.037819 #1]  INFO -- :
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:28.037918 #1]  INFO -- : > rm -fr /var/run/postgresql
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:28.039663 #1]  INFO -- :
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:28.039770 #1]  INFO -- : > ln -s /shared/postgres_run /var/run/postgresql
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:28.041327 #1]  INFO -- :
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:28.041457 #1]  INFO -- : > socat /dev/null UNIX-CONNECT:/shared/postgres_run/.s.PGS
QL.5432 || exit 0 && echo postgres already running stop container ; exit 1
2023/04/13 09:55:28 socat[19] E connect(6, AF=1 "/shared/postgres_run/.s.PGSQL.5432", 36): No such file
or directory
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:28.045222 #1]  INFO -- :
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:28.045329 #1]  INFO -- : > rm -fr /shared/postgres_run/.s*
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:28.047498 #1]  INFO -- :
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:28.047590 #1]  INFO -- : > rm -fr /shared/postgres_run/*.pid
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:28.049691 #1]  INFO -- :
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:28.049815 #1]  INFO -- : > mkdir -p /shared/postgres_run/13-main.pg_stat_tmp
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:28.051658 #1]  INFO -- :
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:28.051800 #1]  INFO -- : > chown postgres:postgres /shared/postgres_run/13-main.pg_
stat_tmp
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:28.053477 #1]  INFO -- :
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:28.057301 #1]  INFO -- : File > /etc/service/postgres/run  chmod: +x  chown:
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:28.060969 #1]  INFO -- : File > /etc/service/postgres/log/run  chmod: +x  chown:
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:28.064663 #1]  INFO -- : File > /etc/runit/3.d/99-postgres  chmod: +x  chown:
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:28.068319 #1]  INFO -- : File > /root/upgrade_postgres  chmod: +x  chown:
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:28.068510 #1]  INFO -- : > chown -R root /var/lib/postgresql/13/main
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:37.064277 #1]  INFO -- :
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:37.064575 #1]  INFO -- : > [ ! -e /shared/postgres_data ] && install -d -m 0755 -o
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:37.066210 #1]  INFO -- :
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:37.066255 #1]  INFO -- : > chown -R postgres:postgres /shared/postgres_data
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:37.076706 #1]  INFO -- :
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:37.076786 #1]  INFO -- : > chown -R postgres:postgres /var/run/postgresql
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:37.078711 #1]  INFO -- :
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:37.078822 #1]  INFO -- : > /root/upgrade_postgres
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:37.082200 #1]  INFO -- :
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:37.082297 #1]  INFO -- : > rm /root/upgrade_postgres
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:37.083919 #1]  INFO -- :
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:37.084109 #1]  INFO -- : Replacing data_directory = '/var/lib/postgresql/13/main' w
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:37.084484 #1]  INFO -- : Replacing (?-mix:#?listen_addresses *=.*) with listen_addr
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:37.085049 #1]  INFO -- : Replacing (?-mix:#?synchronous_commit *=.*) with synchrono
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:37.085423 #1]  INFO -- : Replacing (?-mix:#?shared_buffers *=.*) with shared_buffer
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:37.085857 #1]  INFO -- : Replacing (?-mix:#?work_mem *=.*) with work_mem = $db_work
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:37.086303 #1]  INFO -- : Replacing (?-mix:#?default_text_search_config *=.*) with d
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:37.086614 #1]  INFO -- : > install -d -m 0755 -o postgres -g postgres /shared/postg
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:37.089011 #1]  INFO -- :
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:37.089245 #1]  INFO -- : Replacing (?-mix:#?checkpoint_segments *=.*) with checkpoi
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:37.089516 #1]  INFO -- : Replacing (?-mix:#?logging_collector *=.*) with logging_co
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:37.089887 #1]  INFO -- : Replacing (?-mix:#?log_min_duration_statement *=.*) with l
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:37.090322 #1]  INFO -- : Replacing (?-mix:^#local +replication +postgres +peer$) wi
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:37.090509 #1]  INFO -- : Replacing (?-mix:^host.*all.*all.*127.*$) with host all al
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:37.090946 #1]  INFO -- : Replacing (?-mix:^host.*all.*all.*::1\/128.*$) with host a
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:37.091279 #1]  INFO -- : > HOME=/var/lib/postgresql USER=postgres exec chpst -u pos
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:37.092562 #1]  INFO -- : > sleep 5
2023-04-13 09:55:37.239 UTC [42] LOG:  starting PostgreSQL 13.10 (Debian 13.10-1.pgdg110+1) on x86_64-pc
2023-04-13 09:55:37.240 UTC [42] LOG:  listening on IPv4 address "0.0.0.0", port 5432
2023-04-13 09:55:37.240 UTC [42] LOG:  listening on IPv6 address "::", port 5432
2023-04-13 09:55:37.287 UTC [42] LOG:  listening on Unix socket "/var/run/postgresql/.s.PGSQL.5432"
2023-04-13 09:55:37.338 UTC [45] LOG:  database system was interrupted; last known up at 2023-04-13 08:3
2023-04-13 09:55:37.795 UTC [45] LOG:  invalid resource manager ID in primary checkpoint record
2023-04-13 09:55:37.795 UTC [45] PANIC:  could not locate a valid checkpoint record
2023-04-13 09:55:38.256 UTC [42] LOG:  startup process (PID 45) was terminated by signal 6: Aborted
2023-04-13 09:55:38.256 UTC [42] LOG:  aborting startup due to startup process failure
2023-04-13 09:55:38.283 UTC [42] LOG:  database system is shut down
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:42.094474 #1]  INFO -- :
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:42.094602 #1]  INFO -- : > su postgres -c 'createdb discourse' || true
createdb: error: could not connect to database template1: connection to server on socket "/var/run/postg
        Is the server running locally and accepting connections on that socket?
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:42.130700 #1]  INFO -- :
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:42.130828 #1]  INFO -- : > su postgres -c 'psql discourse -c "create user discourse
psql: error: connection to server on socket "/var/run/postgresql/.s.PGSQL.5432" failed: No such file or directory
        Is the server running locally and accepting connections on that socket?
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:42.166116 #1]  INFO -- :
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:42.166242 #1]  INFO -- : > su postgres -c 'psql discourse -c "grant all privileges on database discourse to discourse;"' || true
psql: error: connection to server on socket "/var/run/postgresql/.s.PGSQL.5432" failed: No such file or directory
        Is the server running locally and accepting connections on that socket?
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:42.201461 #1]  INFO -- :
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:42.201617 #1]  INFO -- : > su postgres -c 'psql discourse -c "alter schema public owner to discourse;"'
psql: error: connection to server on socket "/var/run/postgresql/.s.PGSQL.5432" failed: No such file or directory
        Is the server running locally and accepting connections on that socket?
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:42.236768 #1]  INFO -- :
I, [2023-04-13T09:55:42.236996 #1]  INFO -- : Terminating async processes

FAILED
--------------------
Pups::ExecError: su postgres -c 'psql discourse -c "alter schema public owner to discourse;"' failed with return #<Process::Status: pid 55 exit 2>
Location of failure: /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/3.2.0/gems/pups-1.1.1/lib/pups/exec_command.rb:117:in `spawn'
exec failed with the params "su postgres -c 'psql $db_name -c \"alter schema public owner to $db_user;\"'"
bootstrap failed with exit code 2
** 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.
cd04fbb38f1ef61e418d680b969c2c056439e3b1dbfe64608524a8d3361cd91c

discourse-doctor fails to find the docker app running:

==================== SERIOUS PROBLEM!!!! ====================
app not running!
Attempting to rebuild

And tries to rebuild, so it basically end with the same log above.

Thanks in advance!

1 Like

PANIC: could not locate a valid checkpoint record

i think your db’s corrupt. imo it would be best to restore from a backup. i think discourse may make backups by default? look in discourse/shared/app/backups or whatever.


if you don’t have a discourse backup, then this becomes more of a postgres support topic than a discourse one. i could try to help i guess, but i’m not an expert.

you might have to use this:

1 Like

Sounds like it to me. I hope you can find a solution @Norike … meanwhile I find this quite worrying - I believe a software-initiated reboot should leave the database in a clean state. Was this a hard reboot, aka a power-cycle?

I wonder if it makes any difference what filesystem your database is stored on. What does df -T tell you?

Thanks!

Indeed I found some backups at the /var/discourse/shared/standalone/backups/default folder, which sounds hopeful.
However, according to the Restore a Backup from the Command Line guide, the container needs to be running to import the database, but the ./launcher enter app command fails:

x86_64 arch detected.
WARNING: containers/app.yml file is world-readable. You can secure this file by running: chmod o-rwx containers/app.yml
Error response from daemon: No such container: app

I guess I should I start with a clean installation. Is there a guide to clean and start over? Would the following be correct?

  • Copy the backups from /var/discourse/shared/standalone/backups/default folder to a different location outside /var/discourse folder
  • Remove the /var/discourse folder
  • Install Discourse from scratch following the Install Cloud guide to have a new running instance.
  • Restore the backup with the GUI or with the command line guide above

It was a software reboot after applying some updates.

This:

Filesystem          Type     1K-blocks     Used Available Use% Mounted on
devtmpfs            devtmpfs      4096        0      4096   0% /dev
tmpfs               tmpfs      3869940        0   3869940   0% /dev/shm
tmpfs               tmpfs      1547980    17600   1530380   2% /run
/dev/mapper/cs-root xfs       73364480 16750976  56613504  23% /
/dev/sda2           xfs        1038336   395812    642524  39% /boot
/dev/mapper/cs-home xfs      893122476 10838052 882284424   2% /home
/dev/sda1           vfat        613160     7644    605516   2% /boot/efi
overlay             overlay   73364480 16750976  56613504  23% /var/lib/docker/overlay2/a9c2622d4167f08ff4697a4c49febf55a7e460e087c41c05e6c1bbd321b13f62/merged
overlay             overlay   73364480 16750976  56613504  23% /var/lib/docker/overlay2/765273939fa75096c994588ba9c9bac6b5a9b909a60a962169b83f7c8a213b7f/merged
tmpfs               tmpfs       773988        4    773984   1% /run/user/1000

Thanks - I’m not familiar with XFS but a quick search suggests that it should be safe to use. Just possibly xfs_info / will be usefully informative.

ok, then copy this entire dir somewhere for seafekeeping:

/var/discourse/shared

that way you can try to restore from backups or even try to repair the corrupt db if you need to.

then delete your docker container(s), do a docker image prune -a, delete /var/discourse, and install discourse again. then copy the most recent backup file into place and try to restore.

1 Like

That restored it. Thanks!

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