# Forge - Knowledge-Base/Servers
*Source: https://forge.laravel.com/docs/knowledge-base/servers*
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##### Troubleshooting
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On this page
- [AWS provisioned servers are disappearing](#aws-provisioned-servers-are-disappearing)
- [DigitalOcean droplet limit exceeded](#digitalocean-droplet-limit-exceeded)
- [Expanding server disk space](#expanding-server-disk-space)
- [Checking current disk usage](#checking-current-disk-usage)
- [Expanding the filesystem](#expanding-the-filesystem)
- [Verifying the expansion](#verifying-the-expansion)
- [Troubleshooting](#troubleshooting)
- [Operating system release upgrades](#operating-system-release-upgrades)
- [Recommended approach](#recommended-approach)
- [Restarting PHP FPM](#restarting-php-fpm)
- [Resetting the Forge user sudo password](#resetting-the-forge-user-sudo-password)
- [DigitalOcean](#digitalocean)
- [Server disconnected](#server-disconnected)
- [”Too many open files” error](#%E2%80%9Dtoo-many-open-files%E2%80%9D-error)
- [Upgrading Composer](#upgrading-composer)
- [Upgrading Meilisearch](#upgrading-meilisearch)
- [Upgrading Nginx](#upgrading-nginx)
- [Upgrading Node.js](#upgrading-node-js)
- [Upgrading npm](#upgrading-npm)
Troubleshooting
# Servers
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Common tasks and solutions for managing your Laravel Forge server.
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## [](#aws-provisioned-servers-are-disappearing) AWS provisioned servers are disappearing
To ensure Laravel Forge works correctly with AWS, please review [these requirements](/docs/server-providers#aws).
## [](#digitalocean-droplet-limit-exceeded) DigitalOcean droplet limit exceeded
This error is returned by [DigitalOcean](https://digitalocean.com) when you have reached a limit on how many droplets you can create. You can ask DigitalOcean to increase your droplet limit by contacting their support. Once they have increased your limit, you may create servers in Laravel Forge.
## [](#expanding-server-disk-space) Expanding server disk space
When you increase your server’s disk size through your VPS provider, the additional space is not automatically available to your Ubuntu filesystem. You will need to expand the operating system’s filesystem to use the newly allocated space.
We strongly recommend creating a backup or snapshot of your server through your VPS provider before proceeding with disk expansion operations. While these commands are generally safe, disk operations carry inherent risks.
#### [](#checking-current-disk-usage) Checking current disk usage
First, check your current disk usage to identify which partition needs expansion:
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```
df -h
```
This command will show you all mounted filesystems and their usage. Look for the partition that’s running low on space (typically `/`).
#### [](#expanding-the-filesystem) Expanding the filesystem
Most Laravel Forge servers use standard partitions without LVM (Logical Volume Manager). If your system uses LVM, the disk expansion process is different and requires additional steps using the `pvresize` and `lvextend` commands.
For standard, non-LVM systems, follow these steps:
1. First, check your partition table:
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```
sudo fdisk -l
```
2. If the partition needs to be expanded, use the `growpart` command:
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```
# Install growpart if it is not available...
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y cloud-guest-utils
# Grow the partition...
sudo growpart /dev/vda1 # Replace with your actual device and partition number (e.g., /dev/sda1, /dev/xvda1)
```
3. Resize the filesystem:
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```
# For ext4 filesystems...
sudo resize2fs /dev/vda1 # Replace with your actual device (e.g., /dev/sda1, /dev/xvda1)
# For XFS filesystems...
sudo xfs_growfs /
```
#### [](#verifying-the-expansion) Verifying the expansion
After completing the expansion, verify that the additional space is available:
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```
df -h
```
The filesystem should now show the increased capacity.
#### [](#troubleshooting) Troubleshooting
**“No space left on device” Error**
If you encounter an error like `mkdir: cannot create directory '/tmp/growpart.xxxx': No space left on device`, your root filesystem is completely full, preventing even basic commands from running. You will need to free up some temporary space first:
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```
# Clear apt cache...
sudo apt-get clean
# Clear journal logs (keep only last 50M)...
sudo journalctl --vacuum-size=50M
# Remove old snap versions...
sudo sh -c 'snap list --all | grep disabled | awk "{print \$1, \$3}" | while read name rev; do snap remove "$name" --revision="$rev"; done'
# Check if you now have space...
df -h /
```
Once you created free space on the disk, you can proceed with the disk expansion steps above.
Consider setting up [disk usage monitoring](/docs/servers/monitoring) to receive alerts before your disk space runs critically low, giving you time to expand the disk proactively.
## [](#operating-system-release-upgrades) Operating system release upgrades
When connecting to your server via SSH, you may encounter messages like `New release '24.04.1 LTS' available` or be instructed to run `do-release-upgrade`. However, we strongly advise against performing operating system release upgrades on Laravel Forge-managed servers.
Upgrading your server’s operating system version can break Laravel Forge’s ability to manage your server and may cause application downtime.
During initial provisioning, Laravel Forge configures your Ubuntu server with specific settings, services, and applications that are tailored to work seamlessly together. A release upgrade can:
- Overwrite critical configuration files
- Change system service behaviors
- Break compatibility with installed PHP versions, databases, and other services
- Prevent Laravel Forge from properly managing your server
- Cause unexpected application errors or downtime
#### [](#recommended-approach) Recommended approach
Instead of upgrading, we recommend provisioning a new server with your desired Ubuntu version through Laravel Forge, then migrating your sites to the new server. This approach ensures full Forge compatibility and reduces the risk of unexpected issues that can arise from in-place upgrades.
For teams that prefer a fully managed solution, [Laravel Cloud](https://cloud.laravel.com) eliminates operating system concerns entirely. While Laravel Forge provides maximum control and flexibility over your infrastructure, Laravel Cloud’s fully-managed approach means you never need to think about server maintenance or OS versions.
## [](#restarting-php-fpm) Restarting PHP FPM
When configuring your server, Laravel Forge configures FPM so that it can be restarted without using your server’s “sudo” password. To do so, you should issue the following command. Of course, you should adjust the PHP version to match the version of PHP installed on your machine:
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```
touch /tmp/fpmlock 2>/dev/null || true
( flock -w 10 9 || exit 1
echo 'Restarting FPM...'; sudo -S service $FORGE_PHP_FPM reload ) 9</tmp/fpmlock
```
`flock` is used to prevent concurrent php-fpm reloads. Without a lock, simultaneous restart attempts could lead to race conditions, brief service interruptions, or inconsistent process states.
## [](#resetting-the-forge-user-sudo-password) Resetting the Forge user sudo password
Laravel Forge does not store your server’s `forge` user sudo password and is therefore unable to reset it for you. To reset the `forge` user sudo password, you’ll need to contact your server provider and regain SSH access to your server as the `root` user.
Once you are connected to your server as the `root` user, you should run the `passwd forge` command to redefine the `forge` user sudo password.
#### [](#digitalocean) DigitalOcean
If your servers are managed by DigitalOcean, the following steps should assist you in resetting the `forge` user’s sudo password using Digital Ocean’s dashboard.
1. First, on DigitalOcean’s dashboard, click on the server name. Then, within the “Access” tab, click on “Reset Root Password”. Usually, this operation restarts the server and sends the new `root` user’s sudo password to your DigitalOcean account’s associated email address.
2. Next, still on the “Access” tab, click on “Launch Droplet Console” to gain access to your server terminal as the `root` user. During this step, you will be asked to redefine the `root` user’s sudo password.
3. Finally, execute the `passwd forge` terminal command as the `root` user to redefine the `forge` user’s sudo password.
## [](#server-disconnected) Server disconnected
There are several reasons why your server may have a “disconnected” status. We encourage you to check these common solutions before contacting support:
- Verify that the server is powered on via your server provider’s dashboard. If the server is powered off, you should restart it using your **provider’s dashboard**.
- Verify that the public IP address of the server is known to Laravel Forge (the public IP address may change between reboots of the actual VPS).
- Verify that the Laravel Forge generated public key for the server is included in the `/root/.ssh/authorized_keys` and `/home/forge/.ssh/authorized_keys` files. This key is available via the “Settings” tab of your server’s Forge management panel.
- If your server is behind a firewall, make sure you have [allowed Laravel Forge’s IP addresses to access the server](/docs/introduction#forge-ip-addresses).
- If you removed Port 22 from the server’s firewall rules, you will need to contact your server provider and ask them to restore the rule. Removing this rule prevents Laravel Forge from accessing your server via SSH.
- Remove any private keys or other lines that do not contain a valid public key from the `/root/.ssh/authorized_keys` and `/home/forge/.ssh/authorized_keys` files.
If you are still experiencing connectivity issues, you should also verify that the permissions and ownership of the following directories and files are correct:
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```
# Fixes the "root" user (run as root)
chown root:root /root
chown -R root:root /root/.ssh
chmod 700 /root/.ssh
chmod 600 /root/.ssh/authorized_keys
# Fixes the "forge" user
chown forge:forge /home/forge
chown -R forge:forge /home/forge/.ssh
chmod 700 /home/forge/.ssh
chmod 600 /home/forge/.ssh/authorized_keys
```
If, after trying all of the above solutions, Laravel Forge is still unable to connect to your server but you can still SSH to the server, please run the following command as the `root` user and share the output with Forge support:
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```
grep 'sshd' /var/log/auth.log | tail -n 10
```
If Laravel Forge is not able to connect to your server, you will not be able to manage it through the Forge dashboard until connectivity is restored.
## [](#”too-many-open-files”-error) ”Too many open files” error
If you are receiving an error stating that your server has “too many open files”, you likely need to increase the maximum amount of file descriptors that your operating system is configured to allow at a given time. This may be particularly true if your server will be handling a very large number of incoming web requests.
First, ensure the maximum number of “open files” is correctly configured based on the size of your server. Usually, the maximum number of open files allowed by the operating system should be about 100 files for every 1MB of RAM. For example, if your server has 4GB memory, the maximum number of open files can safely be set to `409600`.
You can determine how many files your operating system currently allows to be opened at once by running the `sysctl fs.file-max` command. You can configure the existing setting by adding or modifying the following line in `/etc/sysctl.conf`:
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```
fs.file-max = LIMIT_HERE
```
While the instructions above set the maximum number of “open files” system-wide, you also need to specify these limits for each server user by editing the `/etc/security/limits.conf` file and adding the following lines:
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```
root soft nofile LIMIT_HERE
root hard nofile LIMIT_HERE
forge soft nofile LIMIT_HERE
forge hard nofile LIMIT_HERE
```
Of course, if your server contains additional users due to the use of “site isolation”, those users also need to be added to the `/etc/security/limits.conf` file:
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```
isolated-user soft nofile LIMIT_HERE
isolated-user hard nofile LIMIT_HERE
```
Additionally, if the “too many open files” error was triggered by an Nginx process (very common on load balancers at scale), you will need to also add the `nginx` user to `/etc/security/limits.conf`:
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```
nginx soft nofile LIMIT_HERE
nginx hard nofile LIMIT_HERE
```
And, add the following directive to your server’s `/etc/nginx/nginx.conf` file:
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```
worker_rlimit_nofile LIMIT_HERE;
```
You should restart the Nginx service once this directive has been added to your Nginx configuration file:
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```
service nginx restart
```
## [](#upgrading-composer) Upgrading Composer
The latest version of Composer is installed by Laravel Forge when a new server is provisioned. However, as your server ages, you may wish to upgrade the installed version of Composer. You may do so using the following command:
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```
composer self-update --2
```
This will instruct Composer to update itself and specifically select version 2. If your application is not compatible with Composer 2, you can roll back to Composer 1 at any time:
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```
composer self-update --1
```
Servers are provisioned with a Scheduled job that updates Composer. You should delete and recreate the existing job via the server’s “Scheduled Jobs” tab after upgrading Composer.
## [](#upgrading-meilisearch) Upgrading Meilisearch
If you would like to install the latest Meilisearch binaries on your server, please follow [the official Meilisearch upgrade guide](https://www.meilisearch.com/docs/learn/update_and_migration/updating).
On most Laravel Forge servers, the Meilisearch binary is installed at `/usr/local/bin/meilisearch` and the database is stored at `/var/lib/meilisearch`.
## [](#upgrading-nginx) Upgrading Nginx
The latest version of Nginx is installed by Laravel Forge when a new server is provisioned. However, as your server ages, you may wish to upgrade the installed version of Nginx. You may do so using the following commands:
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```
sudo apt-get install -y --only-upgrade nginx
sudo nginx -v
sudo service nginx restart
```
You should upgrade the Nginx version on your server at your own risk. Upgrading the version of Nginx installed on your server may cause downtime or conflict with other installed software.
## [](#upgrading-node-js) Upgrading Node.js
The latest LTS version of Node.js is installed by Laravel Forge when it is provisioning a new server. However, as your server ages, you may wish to upgrade the version of Node.js:
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```
sudo apt-get update --allow-releaseinfo-change && sudo apt-get install -y ca-certificates curl gnupg
sudo mkdir -p /etc/apt/keyrings
curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/gpgkey/nodesource-repo.gpg.key | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/nodesource.gpg
NODE_MAJOR=22
echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/nodesource.gpg] https://deb.nodesource.com/node_$NODE_MAJOR.x nodistro main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nodesource.list
sudo apt-get update --allow-releaseinfo-change && sudo apt-get install nodejs -y
```
[Node.js version information](https://nodejs.org/en/about/previous-releases/)
## [](#upgrading-npm) Upgrading npm
The latest version of npm is installed by Laravel Forge when provisioning new servers. However, you may upgrade the installed version of npm using the following commands:
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```
sudo npm install npm@latest -g
```
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