newznab-tmux/docs/manticore-ubuntu-package.md

ManticoreSearch Ubuntu package operations

This project can run ManticoreSearch either through Docker Compose or through a native Ubuntu/Debian package install. Native package installs are managed by systemd, so Docker ulimits do not apply.

27.1.5 upgrade: Too many open files during binlog replay

If installing or configuring ManticoreSearch 27.1.5 fails with output like this:

Job for manticore.service failed because the control process exited with error code.
Status: "Replaying binlogs..."
WARNING: accept() failed, raise ulimit -n and restart searchd: Too many open files

then the daemon is starting and replaying binlogs, but its file descriptor limit is too low for the current tables/binlogs/connections. This is a host-level systemd limit issue for package installs.

1. Pause app traffic before restarting Manticore

Stop NNTmux workers/processes that may reconnect repeatedly while Manticore is replaying binlogs:

php artisan tmux:stop
php artisan horizon:terminate

If Horizon is not used on that host, stop whichever queue supervisor/process manager is running workers.

2. Inspect the current limit

sudo systemctl show manticore -p LimitNOFILE -p LimitNPROC -p MainPID
pid=$(systemctl show manticore -p MainPID --value)
if [ "$pid" != "0" ]; then sudo grep -E 'open files|max user processes' /proc/$pid/limits; fi
sudo journalctl -u manticore -n 200 --no-pager

A low LimitNOFILE value, commonly 1024, is not enough for large RT tables and binlog replay.

3. Add a systemd override

sudo install -d -m 0755 /etc/systemd/system/manticore.service.d
cat <<'EOF' | sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/manticore.service.d/override.conf
[Service]
LimitNOFILE=1048576
LimitNPROC=65535
EOF
sudo systemctl daemon-reload

LimitNOFILE must be at least as high as the max_open_files value in /etc/manticoresearch/manticore.conf. This repo’s config/manticore.conf sets:

max_open_files = 524288

The higher systemd limit leaves headroom for future table/binlog growth. If systemctl show manticore -p LimitNOFILE is high but Manticore still logs Too many open files, check the live process limit too; searchd may have lowered its own limit from max_open_files:

pid=$(systemctl show manticore -p MainPID --value)
if [ "$pid" != "0" ]; then sudo grep -E 'open files|max user processes' /proc/$pid/limits; fi

4. Ensure Manticore config has max_open_files

If the production /etc/manticoresearch/manticore.conf is not generated from this repository, add this inside the searchd { ... } block:

max_open_files = 524288

Then validate the config:

sudo searchd --config /etc/manticoresearch/manticore.conf --check

5. Restart and finish package configuration

sudo systemctl stop manticore || true
sudo systemctl reset-failed manticore
sudo systemctl start manticore
sudo systemctl status manticore --no-pager
sudo journalctl -u manticore -n 100 --no-pager
sudo dpkg --configure -a

If Status: "Replaying binlogs..." remains for a while but the Too many open files warnings stop, let replay continue. Large binlogs can take time after an upgrade.

6. Verify the effective runtime limit

pid=$(systemctl show manticore -p MainPID --value)
sudo grep -E 'open files|max user processes' /proc/$pid/limits
sudo lsof -p "$pid" | wc -l

The open files hard and soft limits should reflect the override.

7. Resume app traffic

After Manticore is fully active and responding:

php artisan nntmux:check-index --manticore --releases
php artisan nntmux:search-reconcile --dry-run --since=1h
php artisan tmux:start

Restart queue workers/process supervisors as appropriate for the host.

Backtrace or crash during binlog replay

If searchd --config /etc/manticoresearch/manticore.conf --check returns OK but manticore.service prints a backtrace while the service status is still Status: "Replaying binlogs...", the config is syntactically valid and the failure is happening while Manticore replays persisted binlogs. Treat this as a possible daemon bug, corrupt binlog, or incompatible replay edge case.

If the log also contains both of these lines, handle the file limit first even when systemctl show manticore -p LimitNOFILE already looks high:

prealloc failed: failed to open file '...': 'Too many open files' - NOT SERVING
BuddyStart(...) ... boost::process::detail::posix::async_pipe ... abort

This means Manticore exhausted its effective descriptor limit while opening table files, then crashed while starting Buddy. Ensure /etc/manticoresearch/manticore.conf uses max_open_files = 524288 or higher, then restart with the matching systemd override before touching binlogs or table data.

sudo grep -nE 'max_open_files|preopen_tables|buddy_path|listen.*9443|https' /etc/manticoresearch/manticore.conf
sudo perl -0pi -e 's/max_open_files\s*=\s*\d+/max_open_files = 524288/' /etc/manticoresearch/manticore.conf
sudo searchd --config /etc/manticoresearch/manticore.conf --check
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl stop manticore || true
sudo systemctl reset-failed manticore
sudo systemctl start manticore
sleep 3
pid=$(systemctl show manticore -p MainPID --value)
if [ "$pid" != "0" ]; then sudo grep -E 'open files|max user processes' /proc/$pid/limits; fi
sudo journalctl -u manticore -n 120 --no-pager

If Buddy still crashes after the effective /proc/$pid/limits open-files value is high, temporarily disable Buddy to get the search daemon online and finish the package configuration:

sudo cp -a /etc/manticoresearch/manticore.conf /etc/manticoresearch/manticore.conf.before-buddy-disable
sudo perl -0pi -e 's/^\s*#?\s*buddy_path\s*=.*$/\tbuddy_path\t\t=/' /etc/manticoresearch/manticore.conf
sudo searchd --config /etc/manticoresearch/manticore.conf --check
sudo systemctl restart manticore
sudo systemctl status manticore --no-pager
sudo dpkg --configure -a

Re-enable Buddy after upgrading to a fixed Manticore package or after the table open-file issue is resolved.

Do not keep restart-looping the service. First stop application traffic and keep the evidence needed for rollback or an upstream bug report:

php artisan tmux:stop
php artisan horizon:terminate
sudo systemctl stop manticore || true
sudo systemctl reset-failed manticore

stamp=$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S)
sudo install -d -m 0755 /root/manticore-recovery/$stamp
sudo journalctl -u manticore -b --no-pager > /root/manticore-recovery/$stamp/journal.log
sudo cp -a /var/log/manticore /root/manticore-recovery/$stamp/logs
sudo cp -a /etc/manticoresearch/manticore.conf /root/manticore-recovery/$stamp/manticore.conf
sudo tar -C /var/lib -czf /root/manticore-recovery/$stamp/manticore-var-lib-before-recovery.tgz manticore
if command -v coredumpctl >/dev/null 2>&1; then
  sudo coredumpctl info searchd > /root/manticore-recovery/$stamp/coredumpctl-info.txt || true
fi

List the binlog files under the configured binlog_path/data_dir:

sudo find /var/lib/manticore /var/lib/manticore/data -maxdepth 2 -type f \
  \( -name 'binlog*' -o -name '*.binlog*' \) -ls 2>/dev/null

If the service still crashes during replay after the file descriptor limit fix, quarantine the binlogs instead of deleting them. This allows Manticore to start from flushed table data while preserving the replay files for analysis. Pending unflushed writes may be missing and must be reconciled/reindexed afterward.

stamp=$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S)
sudo install -d -m 0755 /var/lib/manticore/binlog-quarantine-$stamp
sudo find /var/lib/manticore/data -maxdepth 1 -type f \
  \( -name 'binlog*' -o -name '*.binlog*' \) \
  -exec mv -t /var/lib/manticore/binlog-quarantine-$stamp {} +

sudo systemctl start manticore
sudo systemctl status manticore --no-pager
sudo journalctl -u manticore -n 100 --no-pager
sudo dpkg --configure -a

After Manticore starts, reconcile the index with the database before resuming normal processing:

php artisan nntmux:check-index --manticore --releases
php artisan nntmux:search-reconcile --dry-run --since=24h
php artisan nntmux:search-reconcile --reindex --since=24h
php artisan tmux:start

If tables fail to open even after quarantining binlogs, keep the recovery backup and rebuild the RT tables during a maintenance window:

php artisan manticore:create-indexes --drop
php artisan nntmux:populate --manticore --all

Attach /root/manticore-recovery/<stamp>/journal.log, the copied searchd logs, the Manticore package version, and the preserved quarantined binlogs when filing an upstream Manticore issue.

Last-resort binlog recovery

Do not delete or move binlogs as a first response. If Manticore still cannot start after raising file limits and config validation passes, capture logs first:

sudo journalctl -u manticore -b --no-pager > /tmp/manticore-journal.log
sudo tail -500 /var/log/manticore/searchd.log > /tmp/manticore-searchd-tail.log

Only after backing up /var/lib/manticore and accepting that search indexes may need a full rebuild should binlogs be moved aside. Prefer a maintenance window and reindex with:

php artisan manticore:create-indexes --drop
php artisan nntmux:populate --manticore --all