Unable to upgrade to PostgreSQL 15/

Support
1

Hi, I read this post: PostgreSQL 15 update - and tried to upgrade to version 15, however when running the rebuild command, I’m running into errors that I’m unfamiliar with, and non of my research has solved the issue. I would appreciate any help I can get here.

It complains about both Locale and postgres being initialized from version 13, and is not compatible with 15.

WARNING: Docker version 20.10.7 deprecated, recommend upgrade to 24.0.7 or newer.
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
Ensuring launcher is up to date
Fetching origin
Launcher is up-to-date
Stopping old container
+ /usr/bin/docker stop -t 600 app
app
2.0.20250129-0720: Pulling from discourse/base
Digest: sha256:01b8516e5504c0e9bc3707773015ff4407be03a89154194ff3b5b8699291bc26
Status: Image is up to date for discourse/base:2.0.20250129-0720
docker.io/discourse/base:2.0.20250129-0720
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/3.3.0/gems/pups-1.2.1/lib/pups.rb
/usr/local/bin/pups --stdin
I, [2025-02-25T12:02:47.588312 #1]  INFO -- : Reading from stdin
I, [2025-02-25T12:02:47.603317 #1]  INFO -- : File > /etc/service/postgres/run  chmod: +x  chown:
I, [2025-02-25T12:02:47.608602 #1]  INFO -- : File > /etc/service/postgres/log/run  chmod: +x  chown:
I, [2025-02-25T12:02:47.614271 #1]  INFO -- : File > /etc/runit/3.d/99-postgres  chmod: +x  chown:
I, [2025-02-25T12:02:47.619607 #1]  INFO -- : File > /root/install_postgres  chmod: +x  chown:
I, [2025-02-25T12:02:47.623993 #1]  INFO -- : File > /root/upgrade_postgres  chmod: +x  chown:
I, [2025-02-25T12:02:47.624696 #1]  INFO -- : Replacing data_directory = '/var/lib/postgresql/15/main' with data_directory = '/shared/postgres_data' in /etc/postgresql/15/main/postgresql.conf
I, [2025-02-25T12:02:47.628520 #1]  INFO -- : Replacing (?-mix:#?listen_addresses *=.*) with listen_addresses = '*' in /etc/postgresql/15/main/postgresql.conf
I, [2025-02-25T12:02:47.629701 #1]  INFO -- : Replacing (?-mix:#?synchronous_commit *=.*) with synchronous_commit = $db_synchronous_commit in /etc/postgresql/15/main/postgresql.conf
I, [2025-02-25T12:02:47.635680 #1]  INFO -- : Replacing (?-mix:#?shared_buffers *=.*) with shared_buffers = $db_shared_buffers in /etc/postgresql/15/main/postgresql.conf
I, [2025-02-25T12:02:47.636635 #1]  INFO -- : Replacing (?-mix:#?work_mem *=.*) with work_mem = $db_work_mem in /etc/postgresql/15/main/postgresql.conf
I, [2025-02-25T12:02:47.637658 #1]  INFO -- : Replacing (?-mix:#?default_text_search_config *=.*) with default_text_search_config = '$db_default_text_search_config' in /etc/postgresql/15/main/postgresql.conf
I, [2025-02-25T12:02:47.638584 #1]  INFO -- : Replacing (?-mix:#?checkpoint_segments *=.*) with checkpoint_segments = $db_checkpoint_segments in /etc/postgresql/15/main/postgresql.conf
I, [2025-02-25T12:02:47.639215 #1]  INFO -- : Replacing (?-mix:#?logging_collector *=.*) with logging_collector = $db_logging_collector in /etc/postgresql/15/main/postgresql.conf
I, [2025-02-25T12:02:47.639833 #1]  INFO -- : Replacing (?-mix:#?log_min_duration_statement *=.*) with log_min_duration_statement = $db_log_min_duration_statement in /etc/postgresql/15/main/postgresql.conf
I, [2025-02-25T12:02:47.640892 #1]  INFO -- : Replacing (?-mix:^#local +replication +postgres +peer$) with local replication postgres  peer in /etc/postgresql/15/main/pg_hba.conf
I, [2025-02-25T12:02:47.641570 #1]  INFO -- : Replacing (?-mix:^host.*all.*all.*127.*$) with host all all 0.0.0.0/0 md5 in /etc/postgresql/15/main/pg_hba.conf
I, [2025-02-25T12:02:47.642114 #1]  INFO -- : Replacing (?-mix:^host.*all.*all.*::1\/128.*$) with host all all ::/0 md5 in /etc/postgresql/15/main/pg_hba.conf
I, [2025-02-25T12:02:47.642818 #1]  INFO -- : > if [ -f /root/install_postgres ]; then
  /root/install_postgres && rm -f /root/install_postgres
elif [ -e /shared/postgres_run/.s.PGSQL.5432 ]; then
  socat /dev/null UNIX-CONNECT:/shared/postgres_run/.s.PGSQL.5432 || exit 0 && echo postgres already running stop container ; exit 1
fi

failed to set locale!
[error] character map file `UTF-8' not found: No such file or directory
failed to set locale!
[error] default character map file `ANSI_X3.4-1968' not found: No such file or directory
perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
        LANGUAGE = "en_US.UTF-8",
        LC_ALL = "en_US.UTF-8",
        LANG = "en_US.UTF-8"
    are supported and installed on your system.
perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").
/bin/bash: warning: setlocale: LC_ALL: cannot change locale (en_US.UTF-8)
popen failure: Cannot allocate memory
initdb: error: program "postgres" is needed by initdb but was not found in the same directory as "/usr/lib/postgresql/15/bin/initdb"
I, [2025-02-25T12:02:49.979779 #1]  INFO -- : Generating locales (this might take a while)...
  en_US.UTF-8... done
Generation complete.
Upgrading PostgreSQL from version 13 to 15

I, [2025-02-25T12:02:49.980481 #1]  INFO -- : > HOME=/var/lib/postgresql USER=postgres exec chpst -u postgres:postgres:ssl-cert -U postgres:postgres:ssl-cert /usr/lib/postgresql/15/bin/postmaster -D /etc/postgresql/15/main
I, [2025-02-25T12:02:49.983148 #1]  INFO -- : Terminating async processes
2025-02-25 12:02:50.007 UTC [51] FATAL:  database files are incompatible with server
2025-02-25 12:02:50.007 UTC [51] DETAIL:  The data directory was initialized by PostgreSQL version 13, which is not compatible with this version 15.10 (Debian 15.10-1.pgdg120+1).

Thank you in advance!

2

This is perhaps the most serious - you need more RAM or you need to add swap.

Please post the output of these quick diagnostics:

3

Thanks for taking the time. I completely missed that memory thing, here’s the results you asked for:

root@glorious-discourse-forum:~# cat /etc/lsb-release
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=18.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=bionic
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 18.04.5 LTS"
root@glorious-discourse-forum:~# uptime
 13:27:58 up 1341 days, 22:37,  2 users,  load average: 0.07, 0.03, 0.00
root@glorious-discourse-forum:~# df -h /
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/vda1        49G   41G  7.7G  85% /
root@glorious-discourse-forum:~# free
              total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:        2040976      416492      436628       20940     1187856     1433788
Swap:       2097148       85248     2011900
root@glorious-discourse-forum:~# swapon
NAME      TYPE SIZE  USED PRIO
/swapfile file   2G 83.3M   -2
root@glorious-discourse-forum:~# vmstat 5 5
procs -----------memory---------- ---swap-- -----io---- -system-- ------cpu-----
 r  b   swpd   free   buff  cache   si   so    bi    bo   in   cs us sy id wa st
 0  0  85248 436692 444416 743440    8    8   268    88    0    0  3  1 96  0  0
 0  0  85248 436684 444416 743440    0    0     0     0   50   87  0  0 100  0  0
 0  0  85248 436716 444416 743440    0    0     0     8   48   78  0  0 100  0  0
 0  0  85248 436716 444416 743440    0    0     0     6   39   63  0  0 100  0  0
 0  0  85248 436716 444416 743440    0    0     0     0   54   91  0  0 100  0  0
root@glorious-discourse-forum:~# dmesg|egrep -i "memory|oom|kill"
root@glorious-discourse-forum:~# ps auxrc
USER       PID %CPU %MEM    VSZ   RSS TTY      STAT START   TIME COMMAND
root      5781  0.0  0.1  40100  3332 pts/6    R+   13:28   0:00 ps
4

Thanks. I think you could try just adding 2G or 4G of swap. But the message about out of date Docker, and the running of 18.04LTS, means you’d be in a much better position if you migrate to a new instance with a fresh new OS installation: 24.04 preferably. I run both 24.04 and 22.04 at present.

Migrating to a new fresh instance is probably less effort overall than trying to upgrade in place. It might even be less disruptive. You are very likely to have a bit of downtime whatever you do.

Step 1 is to take a backup (with downloads) and download it for safe keeping. Also take a copy of your app.yml file.

I did a migration yesterday, for similar reasons. Also, I could get a better machine for the same cost by switching to a newer offering from the hosting provider.

I followed the migration recipe and tips here
Steps involved to downgrade from 2GB to 1GB on DO? - #3 by merefield

Also for best results read
MKJ’s Opinionated Discourse Deployment Configuration

You are a little short of disk space too, especially if you add swap. I usually do
du -kx / | sort -n | tail -55
or similar to see if there’s anything large that need not be there.

1 Like
5

Oh, another approach to migration, instead of backup and restore, is to use rsync. I haven’t done it, but here’s a recipe:
Move a Discourse site to another VPS with rsync

6

The other issue is your Docker version and OS need upgrading.

The Docker version 24.0.7 or newer requires a higher Ubuntu LTS than 18. The long term service on that LTS is out support.

7

I’ve seen a few sites get upgraded with 18.04, but most of them haven’t.

I’ve seen people manage to do a dist-upgrade, but it’s success is uncertain, and do you really want remnants of your 6 year old OS potentially causing issues for the next 5 years that 24.04 is supported? Also, an upgrade of 18.04 gets you only to 20.04, which is good for about another 60 days, so you’d need to run 3 dist-upgrades to get to the latest OS.