Fog crash. Database connection unavailable?

[Sebastian Roth]

@JohnB What kind of Linux do you have? Login and run lsb_release -a to get the information.

As well you can start by looking into services running properly: systemctl status mariadb (or if it says no such service try systemctl status mysql)

[JohnB]

Hi Sebastian. It’s Debian GNU/Linux 9.4 (stretch). The systemctl check makes it look like MariaDB is running fine (the main PID is 1941 (mysqld) - I assume that’s ok?) although the status check output does conclude with “Warning: Journal has been rotated since unit was started. Log output is incomplete or unavailable”. But this doesn’t sound like a fatal error.

[JohnB]

@Sebastian-Roth Hi Sebastian. It’s Debian GNU/Linux 9.4 (stretch). The systemctl check makes it look like MariaDB is running fine (the main PID is 1941 (mysqld) - I assume that’s ok?) although the status check output does conclude with “Warning: Journal has been rotated since unit was started. Log output is incomplete or unavailable”. But this doesn’t sound like a fatal error.

[Sebastian Roth]

@JohnB Well then try to see if you can connect to the DB: mysql -u root -p (just hit enter when asked for the password and see if it fails or lets you in)

[JohnB]

@Sebastian-Roth It lets me in.

[Sebastian Roth]

@JohnB Well then, can you please take a picture/screenshot of the actual error you see (“Database connection unavailable”) so we know where exactly you run into this. Post here.

[JohnB]

@Sebastian-Roth It’s literally just the text “database connection unavailable” on an otherwise blank (white) screen. This is what I get when I try to go to the FOG admin dashboard (flog.lib.{our institution}.edu/fog), or when I go to FOG by its IP and then try to get into the ‘Fog’ folder.

Thank you very much for your help, btw.

[Sebastian Roth]

@JohnB Well then we need to see if the DB credentials are still set where they should be. See if you have the file /var/www/html/fog/lib/fog/config.class.php and if it has content. You should find things like this in there:

...
        define('DATABASE_TYPE', 'mysql'); // mysql or oracle
        define('DATABASE_HOST', 'localhost');
        define('DATABASE_NAME', 'fog');
        define('DATABASE_USERNAME', 'root');
        define('DATABASE_PASSWORD', '');
...

[JohnB]

@Sebastian-Roth There doesn’t seem to be a config.class.php file in there. Here’s what I get when I run ls -a for the /lib/ directory:

. … client db events fog hooks index.php pages plugins reg-task reports router service

[Sebastian Roth]

@JohnB And what about ls -al /var/www/html/fog/lib/fog/c*?

[Sebastian Roth]

@JohnB As well, do you have that file? ls -al /opt/fog/.fogsettings (the dot in front of the filename is intended!)

[JohnB]

@Sebastian-Roth When I list /fog/c*, I get 20 lines, 18 of them PHP files. When I list .fogsettings, I get one file (.fogsettings). What should I be looking for?

[Sebastian Roth]

@JohnB See the chat bubble in the top right corner.

[***Redbob]

I have this problem in FOG every 3 months aproximately. All I just do is to reinstall it and everything turns well, wihout any lose of data or settings.

[george1421]

@JohnB From the fog server linux command prompt, lets see if you can get into the database. Key in:
mysql -u root -p fog
At the password prompt key in the enter key. If you can get into the database then we can take the next steps.

[edit] there is something funky going on with the forum. This thread was presented to me being 19 hours old with no response by anyone. So I answered with this post, now I see there was an ongoing conversation with other responses. That is very strange. I thought how did I miss this post for 19 hours, especially with no one responding.

[Sebastian Roth]

@Redbob @george1421 Different issue here. Got this up again in a remote session. DB is nicely setup on another host and that needed a restart. Not sure what exactly was hung up, but a quick reboot of the DB server solved the issue.

[george1421]

@Sebastian-Roth Yeah, I just added an edit section to my previous post. This thread popped up with no responses after 19 hours. I didn’t understand how I missed this for 19 hours that’s why my response was a bit random, I was starting at the beginning. Very strange.