Nginx 500 Errors: Report & Post Troubleshooting

[OCR]

I didn't smell anything, but I'll take your word for it...

C'mon, there wasn't even an internet back then!

I am surprised it could be read in any other way.

And I'm surprised that you can read at all, with all that hair in your eyes.

Lol...



No errors here.



OCR

 

[Evo]

Just got one now at 9:10pm CST. Was trying to post.

 

[Vanadium 50]

Me too.

 

[Danger]

Just got another one (straight 500) at 8:49 MST while responding in GD. It cleared within less than a minute.

 

[Evo]

Just now. Trying to give a warning.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

I've made more changes, please let me know if you get errors from this moment on.

 

[Danger]

So, really... what do those messages mean, other than "something screwed up"?

 

[Borek]

So, really... what do those messages mean, other than "something screwed up"?

That's the problem - nobody knows the exact meaning. Which is why it is so difficult to get rid of them.

 

[Danger]

Well that's no way to run an airline...

 

[Borek]

Well that's no way to run an airline...

I have a good news for you - we don't run an airline

Airline approach would be to ground the forums till the problem is resolved. Difference is, forum crash means just some posts lost. And even those lost posts are limited to just a last few hours in the worst case.

It doesn't mean Greg is not trying to find out what is happening, but it is often extremely difficult, especially when there is no sure way to reproduce the problem. 500 can mean some stupid error in the system configuration (rather unlikely, as the system was running OK for the last few months), but it can also mean some piece of hardware is failing and misbehaves at random moments. If it is the latter, chances are situation will not become clear before it breaks definitely.

GRRRR%^&! I got another 500 when trying to submit THIS particular post.

 

[Monique]

The 500s started an hour ago, that's not funny :(

 

[Fredrik]

Didn't it start around the time of the style change? Maybe there was some bigger problem around that time. There was one night when I got 500s all the time. Couldn't post for hours, I think. Not entirely sure though. Maybe it was just random and I happened to get a lot in a short time.

 

[jedishrfu]

so the best strategy is to compose your post then copy it to the clipboard and submit. if the 500 occurs you can save it in a file or try again.

 

[Fredrik]

so the best strategy is to compose your post then copy it to the clipboard and submit. if the 500 occurs you can save it in a file or try again.

This is what you need to do if you are unable to just wait a few minutes and reload the page. If you can do that, you don't even have to copy the text to the clipboard. Just wait a few minutes, reload the page, and make sure to answer "yes" when you're asked if you want to resubmit the data.

 

[Borek]

so the best strategy is to compose your post then copy it to the clipboard and submit. if the 500 occurs you can save it in a file or try again.

Have you tried the "back" button? On most browsers it gets you back to the page where you were composing your post, and the content is still there.

 

[Fredrik]

No, you shouldn't go back. You won't find the stuff the stuff you wrote there. Not the latest version of it anyway. (You may find what you typed for the last successful preview, but that won't help if you have made major changes since then, or if what you just tried to do was the first preview). What you should do is to just wait a few minutes and then press the reload button. Then you answer yes when you're asked if you would like to resend the information.

If you made the mistake of going back, you should undo that by going forward again. (Unfortunately I'm not sure if that works. I can't rule out that the message gets lost forever once you press the back button).

Edit: I remembered some of this wrong. I did some experiments to refresh my memory. So see my next post.

 

[jedishrfu]

I've always lost my post completely back button or otherwise. This may be browser dependent. I use Chrome usually and this is what I've experienced.

 

[Fredrik]

Can you try the following experiment? (It could save you some future headaches). Type something in the quick reply field below. Then pull out the network cable or disable your network interface, and then click "go advanced". Wait for the error message to appear. Now insert the cable, or enable the network interface. Wait a few seconds for it to get started. Now press the reload button and confirm that you want to resend the information. This should give you a successful preview of the text you typed.

I just did some experiments like this of my own (using Firefox). When I typed in advanced mode and then failed to preview (because I wasn't connected to the network), the back button actually worked. I did see the stuff I had typed when I went back. However, when I typed the text in the quick reply box, failed to "go advanced", and then went back, the quick reply field was empty. But I could recover the text by going forward again, and confirming that I want to resend the information.

 

[Danger]

If I get an error, I always hit the back arrow and copy, then paste it in later if immediate resubmissions don't work. I'm running Leopard on a MacBook.

 

[Fredrik]

If I get an error, I always hit the back arrow and copy, then paste it in later if immediate resubmissions don't work. I'm running Leopard on a MacBook.

Yes, this seems to work if you were already in advanced mode, but if you were typing in the quick reply box, you will find that there's nothing there to copy. What you can do then is to go forward again, and probably get the same error message. Then you just wait a while, reload the page, and confirm that you want to resend the information.

 

[Danger]

if you were typing in the quick reply box

Aha! I've used that only a couple of times in my life. My usual method is to use the "Quote" button.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

I believe I have fixed the 500 errors.

 

[Danger]

I believe I have fixed the 500 errors.

Good. That's behind us. Now, what about the next 500?

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

no errors?

 

[Fredrik]

Not for me, but I've been asleep for half of the time since you posted that.

 

[Evo]

Just got a database error trying to open "my pf".

 

[Danger]

Not for me, but I've been asleep for half of the time since you posted that.

So? I've been asleep for the past 3 days and it's not stopping me from posting.