# Upgrade abort - not enough Unicorn workers running

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/upgrade-abort-not-enough-unicorn-workers-running/393003
**Category:** Self-hosting
**Created:** [January 8, 2026, 7:47pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/upgrade-abort-not-enough-unicorn-workers-running/393003 "2026-01-08T19:47:45Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![m\_terenui](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/m_terenui/32/537133_2.png) [@m\_terenui](https://meta.discourse.org/u/m_terenui)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2026, 7:47pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/upgrade-abort-not-enough-unicorn-workers-running/393003/1 "2026-01-08T19:47:45Z")

</div>

Dears good evening,  
Hope you are doing great !!

I am trying to upgrade Discourse on my self hosted instance but get the following error message:

```plaintext
********************************************************
 ***Please be patient, next steps might take a while***
 ********************************************************
ABORTING, you do not have enough Unicorn workers running
Docker Manager: FAILED TO UPGRADE
#<RuntimeError: Not enough workers>
/var/www/discourse/plugins/docker_manager/lib/docker_manager/upgrader.rb:41:in `upgrade'
/var/www/discourse/plugins/docker_manager/scripts/docker_manager_upgrade.rb:19:in `block in <main>'
/var/www/discourse/plugins/docker_manager/scripts/docker_manager_upgrade.rb:6:in `fork'
/var/www/discourse/plugins/docker_manager/scripts/docker_manager_upgrade.rb:6:in `<main>'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.3.0/gems/railties-8.0.4/lib/rails/commands/runner/runner_command.rb:44:in `load'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.3.0/gems/railties-8.0.4/lib/rails/commands/runner/runner_command.rb:44:in `block in perform'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.3.0/gems/activesupport-8.0.4/lib/active_support/execution_wrapper.rb:91:in `wrap'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.3.0/gems/railties-8.0.4/lib/rails/commands/runner/runner_command.rb:70:in `conditional_executor'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.3.0/gems/railties-8.0.4/lib/rails/commands/runner/runner_command.rb:43:in `perform'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.3.0/gems/thor-1.4.0/lib/thor/command.rb:28:in `run'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.3.0/gems/thor-1.4.0/lib/thor/invocation.rb:127:in `invoke_command'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.3.0/gems/railties-8.0.4/lib/rails/command/base.rb:178:in `invoke_command'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.3.0/gems/thor-1.4.0/lib/thor.rb:538:in `dispatch'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.3.0/gems/railties-8.0.4/lib/rails/command/base.rb:73:in `perform'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.3.0/gems/railties-8.0.4/lib/rails/command.rb:65:in `block in invoke'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.3.0/gems/railties-8.0.4/lib/rails/command.rb:143:in `with_argv'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.3.0/gems/railties-8.0.4/lib/rails/command.rb:63:in `invoke'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.3.0/gems/railties-8.0.4/lib/rails/commands.rb:18:in `<main>'
/usr/local/lib/ruby/3.3.0/bundled_gems.rb:69:in `require'
/usr/local/lib/ruby/3.3.0/bundled_gems.rb:69:in `block (2 levels) in replace_require'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.3.0/gems/bootsnap-1.19.0/lib/bootsnap/load_path_cache/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:30:in `require'
bin/rails:18:in `<main>'

```

Could anyone help me troubleshooting this error so I can upgrade my instance ?  
I am currently running on 2025.12.0-latest

Thank you all for your help and support,  
Cheers  
BR  
Terenui

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![itsbhanusharma](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/itsbhanusharma/32/180717_2.png) [@itsbhanusharma](https://meta.discourse.org/u/itsbhanusharma)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2026, 7:48pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/upgrade-abort-not-enough-unicorn-workers-running/393003/2 "2026-01-08T19:48:49Z")

</div>

Did you try rebuilding from command line?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![m\_terenui](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/m_terenui/32/537133_2.png) [@m\_terenui](https://meta.discourse.org/u/m_terenui)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2026, 7:50pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/upgrade-abort-not-enough-unicorn-workers-running/393003/3 "2026-01-08T19:50:50Z")

</div>

> [@itsbhanusharma](#):
>
> Did you try rebuilding from command line?

Nope but I can try, what would be the command line I should use exactly ? Ideally to upgrade everything ? I am rather new on Discourse and sometimes confused with all the commands (e.g. rebuild, rake etc…) 😃

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![itsbhanusharma](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/itsbhanusharma/32/180717_2.png) [@itsbhanusharma](https://meta.discourse.org/u/itsbhanusharma)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2026, 7:52pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/upgrade-abort-not-enough-unicorn-workers-running/393003/4 "2026-01-08T19:52:12Z")

</div>

After You’ve ssh’d into your server,

Usually it is

`cd /var/discourse`

`./launcher rebuild app`

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![m\_terenui](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/m_terenui/32/537133_2.png) [@m\_terenui](https://meta.discourse.org/u/m_terenui)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2026, 8:33pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/upgrade-abort-not-enough-unicorn-workers-running/393003/5 "2026-01-08T20:33:57Z")

</div>

Thank you so much, it worked 😉

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![system](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/system/32/443519_2.png) [@system](https://meta.discourse.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2026, 8:34pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/upgrade-abort-not-enough-unicorn-workers-running/393003/6 "2026-02-07T20:34:48Z")

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