Update stuck?

Installation
1

Hi, I am updating my self hosted instance of Discourse through the web interface, but it seems stuck? It’s been over an hour now and I can’t reach the site? CPU and Disk use are at max.

Anything I can do to resolve this?

2

Hey Roger, can you share any details on where it is stuck at?

For example:

or

Also it would help if you could share your CPU/Disk size.

3

Since I upgraded through the web interface I think the last message had to do with webpack. Sorry I lost that state when I shut down my browser.

At the moment I get an error message when visiting my forum; https://forum.fencecheck.online/

4

As for my VPS; 2 cores / 4.096 MB / Ubuntu 24.04 LTS / 150GB

5

Hmm it looks like your forum is up. Could you check again if the update is still going on?

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6

It’s back. Guess I need more patience when updating. All is well and the update went through fine.

Thanks for the prompt response.

1 Like
7

Roger, how much swap have you got?

Even on a 4GB machine, online rebuilds can eat up all available memory and at this point the server might freeze.

8

Hey Robert, I looked and when I use swapon -s I get no return. Does that mean there is no swap configured? I’m a noob when it comes to my VPS and I figured if the forum itself runs without a problem, the update should run as well?

1 Like
9

Also type free -h

Note: I’ve even experienced this myself recently only to discover that specific server did not have swap configured (very much my omission).

You are often recommended to have double the swap compared to RAM but you can get away with 1:1 with Discourse it seems.

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10

Updating demands a lot more of the server than the regular day-to-day work.

It’s always a good idea, and sometimes essential, to have swap. If you can spare the disk space, 4G swap is a good number.

I have in the past temporarily upsized my server to more RAM, done the upgrade, then downsized it. You have to sure this is reversible. It only costs a few pennies to run the bigger server for an hour or so. But of course, there is a little downtime with this method.

2 Likes
11

Alright, thanks for the insights. I will delve deeper into the swap settings of my little VPS, good to know.

2 Likes