Ghost v6.9.1 not responding

[hollosch]

Hello,

we have a ghost instance that is no longer responding.

Unfortunately, all existing backups that we're trying to restore are also failing!

What can we do?

thx

Nov 27 12:49:49 [2025-11-27 11:49:49] INFO Ghost is running in production...
Nov 27 12:49:49 [2025-11-27 11:49:49] INFO Your site is now available on https://
Nov 27 12:49:49 [2025-11-27 11:49:49] INFO Ctrl+C to shut down
Nov 27 12:49:49 [2025-11-27 11:49:49] INFO Ghost server started in 0.473s
Nov 27 12:49:49 [2025-11-27 11:49:49] INFO Database is in a ready state.
Nov 27 12:49:49 [2025-11-27 11:49:49] INFO Ghost database ready in 0.719s
Nov 27 12:49:50 => Healthcheck error: Error: connect ECONNREFUSED 172.18.18.96:80
Nov 27 12:49:50 [2025-11-27 11:49:50] WARN The currently active theme "dope" has errors, but will still work.
Nov 27 12:49:50
Nov 27 12:49:50 The currently active theme "dope" has errors, but will still work.
Nov 27 12:49:50 2025-11-27T11:49:50Z
Nov 27 12:49:50 Error ID:
Nov 27 12:49:50 2e358bd0-cb87-11f0-aaa1-c10da1d00d00
Nov 27 12:49:50 2025-11-27T11:49:50Z
Nov 27 12:49:50 Details:
Nov 27 12:49:50 checkedVersion: 6.x
Nov 27 12:49:50 name: dope
Nov 27 12:49:50 path: /app/data/content/themes/dope
Nov 27 12:49:50 version: 1.0.0
Nov 27 12:49:50 errors:
Nov 27 12:49:50 -
Nov 27 12:49:50 fatal: false
Nov 27 12:49:50 level: error
Nov 27 12:49:50 rule: Not all page features are being used
Nov 27 12:49:50 details: <b>This error only applies to pages created with the Beta editor.</b> Some page features used by Ghost via the <code>{{@page}}</code> global are not implemented in this theme.&nbsp;Find more information about the <code>{{@page}}</code> global <a href="https://ghost.org/docs/themes/helpers/page/" target=_blank>here</a>.
Nov 27 12:49:50 failures:
Nov 27 12:49:50 -
Nov 27 12:49:50 ref: page.hbs
Nov 27 12:49:50 message: @page.show_title_and_feature_image is not used
Nov 27 12:49:50 rule: GS110-NO-MISSING-PAGE-BUILDER-USAGE
Nov 27 12:49:50 code: GS110-NO-MISSING-PAGE-BUILDER-USAGE
Nov 27 12:49:50 warnings:
Nov 27 12:49:50 (empty array)
Nov 27 12:49:50 2025-11-27T11:49:50Z
Nov 27 12:49:50 ----------------------------------------
Nov 27 12:49:50 2025-11-27T11:49:50Z
Nov 27 12:49:50 ThemeValidationError: The currently active theme "dope" has errors, but will still work.
Nov 27 12:49:50 at Object.getThemeValidationError (/home/cloudron/ghost/versions/6.9.1/core/server/services/themes/validate.js:145:12)
Nov 27 12:49:50 at module.exports.loadAndActivate (/home/cloudron/ghost/versions/6.9.1/core/server/services/themes/activate.js:30:35)
Nov 27 12:49:50 at async initServicesForFrontend (/home/cloudron/ghost/versions/6.9.1/core/boot.js:192:5)
Nov 27 12:49:50 at async bootGhost (/home/cloudron/ghost/versions/6.9.1/core/boot.js:535:31)
Nov 27 12:49:50
Nov 27 12:49:50 2025-11-27 11:49:50,479 INFO success: ghost entered RUNNING state, process has stayed up for > than 1 seconds (startsecs)
Nov 27 12:49:50 2025-11-27 11:49:50,479 INFO success: nginx entered RUNNING state, process has stayed up for > than 1 seconds (startsecs)
Nov 27 12:49:50 [2025-11-27 11:49:50] WARN Theme translations file locales/de.json not found.
Nov 27 12:49:50 [2025-11-27 11:49:50] WARN Theme translations falling back to locales/en.json.
Nov 27 12:49:50 [2025-11-27 11:49:50] INFO Invalidating assets for regeneration
Nov 27 12:49:51 [2025-11-27 11:49:51] INFO Adding offloaded job to the inline job queue
Nov 27 12:49:51 [2025-11-27 11:49:51] INFO Scheduling job mentions-email-report at 26 13 * * * *. Next run on: Thu Nov 27 2025 12:13:26 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
Nov 27 12:49:51 [2025-11-27 11:49:51] INFO [EmailAnalytics] Initialized with SEQUENTIAL processing mode
Nov 27 12:49:51 [2025-11-27 11:49:51] INFO Pinging Explore with Payload https://explore.ghost.org/api/update {"ghost":"6.9.1","site_uuid":"7dbb208c-711c-46d1-b3aa-470d752e97aa","url":"https://","theme":"dope","facebook":"sjrgeislingen","twitter":null,"posts_total":5,"posts_last":"2025-07-15T09:00:08.000Z","posts_first":"2022-06-27T07:53:34.000Z"}
Nov 27 12:49:51 [2025-11-27 11:49:51] INFO Adding offloaded job to the inline job queue
Nov 27 12:49:51 [2025-11-27 11:49:51] INFO Scheduling job clean-expired-comped at 28 59 2 * * *. Next run on: Fri Nov 28 2025 02:59:28 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
Nov 27 12:49:51 [2025-11-27 11:49:51] INFO Adding offloaded job to the inline job queue
Nov 27 12:49:51 [2025-11-27 11:49:51] INFO Scheduling job clean-tokens at 0 24 15 * * *. Next run on: Thu Nov 27 2025 15:24:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
Nov 27 12:49:51 [2025-11-27 11:49:51] INFO Ghost booted in 2.703s
Nov 27 12:49:51 (node:106) [DEP0040] DeprecationWarning: The `punycode` module is deprecated. Please use a userland alternative instead.
Nov 27 12:49:51 (Use `node --trace-deprecation ...` to show where the warning was created)
Nov 27 12:49:51 [2025-11-27 11:49:51] INFO Adding offloaded job to the inline job queue
Nov 27 12:49:51 [2025-11-27 11:49:51] INFO Scheduling job update-check at 15 56 7 * * *. Next run on: Fri Nov 28 2025 07:56:15 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
Nov 27 12:49:51 [2025-11-27 11:49:51] INFO Running milestone emails job on Thu Nov 27 2025 11:49:51 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
Nov 27 12:49:51 [2025-11-27 11:49:51] ERROR Could not get webhook secret for ActivityPub FetchError: invalid json response body at https:// .ghost/activitypub/v1/site reason: Unexpected token '<', "<!DOCTYPE "... is not valid JSON
Nov 27 12:49:51 [2025-11-27 11:49:51] ERROR No webhook secret found - cannot initialise
Nov 27 12:49:51 [2025-11-27 11:49:51] INFO URL Service ready in 1629ms
Nov 27 12:49:55 [2025-11-27 11:49:55] WARN Explore Error queryAaaa ESERVFAIL explore.ghost.org
Nov 27 12:49:56 2025/11/27 11:49:48 [emerg] 107#107: host not found in upstream "ap.ghost.org" in /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/ghost-nginx.conf:19
Nov 27 12:49:56 2025-11-27 11:49:56,785 WARN exited: nginx (exit status 1; not expected)
Nov 27 12:49:57 2025-11-27 11:49:57,789 INFO spawned: 'nginx' with pid 118
Nov 27 12:49:58 2025-11-27 11:49:58,791 INFO success: nginx entered RUNNING state, process has stayed up for > than 1 seconds (startsecs)
Nov 27 12:50:00 => Healthcheck error: Error: connect ECONNREFUSED 172.18.18.96:80
Nov 27 12:50:05 2025/11/27 11:49:57 [emerg] 118#118: host not found in upstream "ap.ghost.org" in /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/ghost-nginx.conf:19
Nov 27 12:50:05 2025-11-27 11:50:05,805 WARN exited: nginx (exit status 1; not expected)
Nov 27 12:50:06 2025-11-27 11:50:06,809 INFO spawned: 'nginx' with pid 119
Nov 27 12:50:07 2025-11-27 11:50:07,811 INFO success: nginx entered RUNNING state, process has stayed up for > than 1 seconds (startsecs)
Nov 27 12:50:10 => Healthcheck error: Error: connect ECONNREFUSED 172.18.18.96:80
Nov 27 12:50:14 2025/11/27 11:50:06 [emerg] 119#119: host not found in upstream "ap.ghost.org" in /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/ghost-nginx.conf:19
Nov 27 12:50:14 2025-11-27 11:50:14,830 WARN exited: nginx (exit status 1; not expected)
Nov 27 12:50:15 2025-11-27 11:50:15,833 INFO spawned: 'nginx' with pid 120
Nov 27 12:50:16 2025-11-27 11:50:16,835 INFO success: nginx entered RUNNING state, process has stayed up for > than 1 seconds (startsecs)
Nov 27 12:50:20 => Healthcheck error: Error: connect ECONNREFUSED 172.18.18.96:80
Nov 27 12:50:23 2025/11/27 11:50:15 [emerg] 120#120: host not found in upstream "ap.ghost.org" in /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/ghost-nginx.conf:19
Nov 27 12:50:23 2025-11-27 11:50:23,853 WARN exited: nginx (exit status 1; not expected)
Nov 27 12:50:24 2025-11-27 11:50:24,856 INFO spawned: 'nginx' with pid 121

[nebulon]

Looks like something is off with the DNS resolving here. Can you try to resolve ap.ghost.org from the server itself?

host ap.ghost.org

[hollosch]

@nebulon said in Ghost v6.9.1 not responding:

host ap.ghost.org

Host ap.ghost.org not found: 2(SERVFAIL)

[nebulon]

So that is the root cause then. Can you run cloudron-support --troubleshoot then? Also did you change anything recently around the DNS resolving for that server?

[joseph]

$ host ap.ghost.org
ap.ghost.org has address 34.49.225.86

nginx has ap.ghost.org in it's proxy_pass (activity pub relay). Maybe you can add the above entry in the server's /etc/hosts and see if that helps?

[girish]

I have added a workaround here to make sure the app comes up even if the server DNS is down - https://git.cloudron.io/packages/ghost-app/-/merge_requests/130 . Should be out shortly .