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Database Debugging and Troubleshooting

This section is to help give some copy-pasta you can use as a reference when you run into some head-banging database problems.

An easy first step is to search for your error in Slack or google "GitLab ".

Available RAILS_ENV

  • production (generally not for your main GDK db, but you may need this for e.g. omnibus)
  • development (this is your main GDK db)
  • test (used for tests like rspec and spinach)

Nuke everything and start over

If you just want to delete everything and start over with an empty DB (~1 minute):

  • bundle exec rake db:reset RAILS_ENV=development

If you just want to delete everything and start over with dummy data (~40 minutes). This also does db:reset and runs DB-specific migrations:

  • bundle exec rake dev:setup RAILS_ENV=development

If your test DB is giving you problems, it is safe to nuke it because it doesn't contain important data:

  • bundle exec rake db:reset RAILS_ENV=test

Migration wrangling

  • bundle exec rake db:migrate RAILS_ENV=development: Execute any pending migrations that you may have picked up from a MR
  • bundle exec rake db:migrate:status RAILS_ENV=development: Check if all migrations are up or down
  • bundle exec rake db:migrate:down VERSION=20170926203418 RAILS_ENV=development: Tear down a migration
  • bundle exec rake db:migrate:up VERSION=20170926203418 RAILS_ENV=development: Setup a migration
  • bundle exec rake db:migrate:redo VERSION=20170926203418 RAILS_ENV=development: Re-run a specific migration

Manually access the database

Access the database via one of these commands (they all get you to the same place)

gdk psql -d gitlabhq_development
bundle exec rails dbconsole RAILS_ENV=development
bundle exec rails db RAILS_ENV=development
  • \q: Quit/exit
  • \dt: List all tables
  • \d+ issues: List columns for issues table
  • CREATE TABLE board_labels();: Create a table called board_labels
  • SELECT * FROM schema_migrations WHERE version = '20170926203418';: Check if a migration was run
  • DELETE FROM schema_migrations WHERE version = '20170926203418';: Manually remove a migration