Thread

Running 2.1.3, build 20101220

When attempting to add a new MSM site via Edit Sites > Create New Site, I get a 500 Server Error.

I am booted out of CP and cannot login (get “invalid username/password”)  until I delete cookies.

Upon logging back in, the new MSM site is listed, but clicking on it in the Sites tab triggers the same above behaviour.

Could this be related to the Publish Form bug in 2.1.2?

This is a pretty critical issue, as I cannot add a new (functional) MSM site in 2.1.3.

Please help!

A 500 error is always the server’s fault. I am suspecting mod_security or some similar program. Can you ask your host about it? You might also want to take a look at the web server’s error logs, they should be able to tell us more the nature of the error.

I’ve asked my host, though it’s difficult without more specifics.

Is there a way I can capture a more verbose error message? i.e. debugging mode?

Hi, Graham. Unfortunately, no. What I’d do is re-create the error, and note the time, then have your host help look at the server logs for that time period.

Hi Sue,

On an Apache server, can you point me in the direction of where I can find the logs? I tried updating MSM in case I was using a bad version, but that didn’t seem to fix it.

Can you offer any more help on how to resolve this?

I really, really need to get it fixed, as I can’t create a new MSM site until it’s fixed, which is crippling my development.

Thanks so much!

On an Apache server, can you point me in the direction of where I can find the logs?

This is entirely up to the server administrator so you’d really need to ask your host about it, sorry.

I really, really need to get it fixed, as I can’t create a new MSM site until it’s fixed, which is crippling my development.

I am sorry to hear that, but this really looks like a server issue at this point. There is not all that much we can do about those, unfortunately.

Hi Ingmar,

Thanks for the quick reply.

I’m checking with my sysadmin for the error log to see if we can pinpoint it more.

I know it looks like it’s probably a server-side error, but the Publish Form error in 2.1.2 was definitely not a server issue, so we know it’s possible that EE can have bugs that produce 500 errors in some cases. I don’t think we can quite rule that out at this point.

What we do know is that my MSM was working before on my server (I have other MSM sites that exist and are functional, but cannot create new ones now) so something has changed between then and now. It could be either server-side or EE-side. 

I’ll let you know when I’m able to find in the logs…

I’m checking with my sysadmin for the error log to see if we can pinpoint it more.

That is good. The problem with 500 errors is that they are so very unspecific. Much more useful information can usually be found in the logs. 

I’ll let you know when I’m able to find in the logs…

Thanks. We’ll be here.

Hi Ingmar,

Ok, here’s some results from the log:

[Mon Jan 24 14:14:39 2011] [error] [client x.x.x.x] request failed: error reading the headers, referer: <a href="http://domain.com/system/index.php?D=cp&C=admin_content&M=channel_management">http://domain.com/system/index.php?D=cp&C=admin_content&M=channel_management</a>
[Mon Jan 24 19:46:14 2011] [error] [client x.x.x.x] File does not exist: /var/www/html/themes/jquery_ui, referer: <a href="http://domain.com/system/index.php?D=cp&C=homepage">http://domain.com/system/index.php?D=cp&C=homepage</a>
[Mon Jan 24 19:49:58 2011] [error] [client x.x.x.x] File does not exist: /var/www/html/themes/jquery_ui, referer: <a href="http://domain.com/system/index.php?D=cp&C=sites&M=manage_sites">http://domain.com/system/index.php?D=cp&C=sites&M=manage_sites</a>
[Mon Jan 24 19:50:15 2011] [error] [client x.x.x.x] File does not exist: /var/www/html/themes/jquery_ui, referer: <a href="http://domain.com/system/index.php?D=cp&C=sites&M=add_edit_site">http://domain.com/system/index.php?D=cp&C=sites&M=add_edit_site</a>

There seems to be a bad call being made to themes/jquery_ui (which doesn’t exist). Would this really cause a 500 error? Seems a bit extreme…

Hi Graham,

How many sites are already running in your MSM install? Are you running some sort of load-balanced server setup? What happens if you go to Admin > Output & Debugging and switch off “Generate HTTP Page Headers?”

Cheers

Greg

Hi Greg,

- Turned off page headers. Same result.

- I’ve got 2 (working) MSM sites that were added before this error began occurring. Any new site added generates the error and behaviour noted above.

- This is a pretty standard single box Apache setup.

- My sysadmin tells me nothing has changed on the server recently that could be a cause of this issue.

- The only correlation I can think of is the 2.1.2/3 updates, as the previous (working) MSM sites were added pre-2.1.2.

It’s difficult for me to effectively debug this without more specific error messages.

Can I PM you login access to check it out from the panel?

Graham

This issue has been FIXED!

It was being caused by the language file issue (re: http://ellislab.com/forums/viewthread/179431/)

Perhaps a file was corrupt on the server.

Thanks for the help, everyone!

Glad it’s working out for you!

Please do not hesitate to post again with any future issues.